The next step

Referring to the artists and the creators as the ‘heart of youtube,’ the platform’s new CEO, Neal Mohan, has recently penned down his vision for YouTube in 2023. He emphasized the company’s intent to support the creator community by providing them with more tools to increase monetization; This includes experiments with generative AI and the promotion of various formats like Shorts, podcasts, etc. 

“We’re investing in the features and experiences that will make YouTube a great home for viewers and creators now and in the future, from doubling down on streaming and connected TV to unlocking unparalleled creative potential,” says Neal. 

The event occurred right after YouTube’s former CEO, Susan Wojcicki’s, stepped down, and Mohan, who has a comprehensive knowledge of the industry, took over the platform. Spearheading the platform to benefit viewers and creators, let us explore what 2023 will look like for YouTube.

What’s in store for YouTube in 2023?

The popularity of TikTok has drastically changed the game for video and content marketing, enabling giants like YouTube to double their focus on developing the creator’s economy. Hence, Youtube has already begun experimenting with various tools and methods to make creators profit from the platform. 

Keeping their growth as the sole focus of this projection, here are YouTube’s primary precedence for 2023:

Integrating The Endless Possibilities Of Ai

As companies worldwide are in trend to explore the possibilities of generative AI, YouTube plans to catch up by looking at ways to incorporate AI effectively and responsibly to help creators raise their production values. 

Creators will be able to explore innovative storytelling options by using AI’s generative capabilities to swap outfits virtually while creating fantasy film settings. Viewers alone can now watch their preferred primetime channels on the platform as well as connect with other sports fans during NFL Sunday. These improvements are currently under development.

Multilingual content creation

YouTube is also aiming to be more accessible and inclusive as it has slowly started to integrate multiple language tracks to promote localization of content to reach global audiences and include more subtitles for people who are hard of hearing. 

Recently, the multiple audio track feature was introduced by the platform which will now enable creators to upload dubbed tracks within the same video. This will not only enable creators and businesses to tap into a larger pool of audience, and build diverse communities but also help them gain traction to their primary channel. 

Read more about the multi-language audio tracks feature here.

Acting On Creator Feedback

Executives from YouTube are planning to create a feedback-oriented environment for creators by meeting more creators this year. “We’re also listening to creators through increased support. Last year, we more than doubled the number of creators and partners who can get live help through chat or email..” he said.

As YouTube sets its priorities straight for boosting creator performance and viewer experience, it has planned on developing products based on feedback to make the platform even more engaging. Following the ideology, two developments, including the ground-breaking multi-language Audio feature, are set in place. 

This feature allows creators to upload new audio tracks for the same video in different languages. Currently, the tracks will have to be dubbed by the creators using AI-generative tools like Dubverse to produce tracks. This feature is a game changer for international creators and marketers because now they can tap into newer markets and increase their reach without investing tons of time in content production and localization. 

The subsequent development focuses on improving platform accessibility for people who have hearing difficulties by providing automatic captions in several languages than before. YouTube also translates captions into 16 different languages on portable devices via machine translation.

Increasing Monetization For Creators

A study from Oxford Economics indicates that in 2021 more than 2 million creators earned money equivalent to a full-time job across several regions; YouTube has geared up experiments to increase monetization methods for creators.

YouTube plans on generating more revenue streams for the creators outside of ads like channel memberships, live streaming options, shopping-related features, and ad revenue sharing options on Shorts.

Until last year, the only way to get into YouTube’s Partner Program was to have at least 1000 subscribers and 4000 watch hours, but now Shorts creators can have some of the action as well, provided they have 1000 subscribers and 10 million short views in the last 90 days. 

More, More Formats

Neil Mohan, the ex-chief producing officer and current CEO of YouTube, has also announced that the platform is bringing out more features for formats, like connected TV experience, Shorts, and podcasts.

Podcasting is one of the most popular formats for creators, celebrities, entrepreneurs, and marketers; it doesn’t come as a surprise that YouTube is putting considerable effort into podcasting in 2023. 

YouTube is not only very interested in investing in resources for podcasting, but according to 9to5 Google, they plan to create a new Explore page specifically for podcasts, placing the format with several other categories like Trending and Music. The platform also intends to provide RSS integration to give podcasters more ways to upload their episodes and allow users additional listening options.

YouTube has grown to 50 billion daily views for Shorts and saw a surge of 80% year-on-year with the number of channels uploading short videos. Hence, the platform has decided to announce a side-by-side format to the creators so that they can record Shorts with other videos, thereby encouraging them to create their trends, recreation, and other short format content. YouTube is also expanding Super Thanks to Shorts, which allows viewers to show their support to creators on their videos. 

A More Safe Youtube Community

In 2023, YouTube will continue its commitment to protecting users under 18 by making it simpler to access family-friendly films thanks to YouTube Kids, which allows for supervised usage. 

Additionally, the site has “invested significant resources in creating multiple layers of protection and elevating high-quality content that supports kids’ learning and growth,” according to YouTube’s CEO, who is also a parent.

And this makes sense, given that we recently learned that younger generations spend most of their time on YouTube. 

Summing it up

“This is a pivotal moment for our industry. We face challenging economic headwinds and uncertain geopolitical conditions. AI presents incredible creative opportunities but must be balanced by responsible stewardship. Creators, viewers, and advertisers have more choices about where to spend their time than ever before and platforms like YouTube need to deliver across a range of formats while investing in the policies that protect platforms from real-world harm,” Mohan said.

As Google is struggling to keep its head above the search engine rivalry, it is looking forward to YouTube being a significant revenue generator for the company. As Mohan’s vision shifts the strategy to support the creator’s economy, the absolute best of the platform is yet to come. Stay tuned to find out more updates about YouTube and meanwhile, enjoy a safer and more inclusive platform in 2023!