YouTube to Prioritize Creators, Shorts, AI and Protection, Says New CEO

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan published an open letter detailing the company’s priorities under his leadership moving forward. 

In the letter, Mohan mentions support for the success of YouTube creators, building for the YouTube of the future, and protecting the community as YouTube’s key priorities.  

Creator Support

YouTube will be expanding its subscription business, investing in shopping, and improving paid digital goods offerings to provide more opportunities for its creators. 

“Creators and artists are the heart of YouTube, and I’ll continue to put them first. In today’s challenging macroeconomic climate, we’re offering opportunities to grow a business on our platform,” the CEO wrote. 

In line with this, the video streaming platform is expanding a feature that gives creators the option to add language tracks to videos, which is currently being tested on live streams and Shorts.  

The CEO also emphasized increased support for creators, giving more of them access to live help through chat or email and providing partner managers to strategize their success. 

Shorts for Creators

With an 80% increase in channels making Shorts last year, YouTube plans to reinvent the format to make the experience better for both creators and users.  

The company will soon enable viewers to remix clips from other videos to turn them into Shorts, making it easier for them to recompose streams and gaming content.

“We've seen how gifted memberships have connected creators with their communities, and this year we’re expanding to mobile. Gaming streams bring lots of highlights and memorable reactions that viewers love to clip,” explained Mohan.  

The CEO also discussed the company’s focus on cross-format creation to help creators build bigger audiences and achieve greater reach. 

Podcasting

Mohan noted a rising interest in podcasting among both YouTube’s viewers and creators. As the second most popular podcast destination, the company will be adding new features to YouTube Studio that make it easier for creators to publish podcasts. 

The streaming platform will bring audio and video podcasts to YouTube Music users based in the U.S. In the future, the platform will have RSS feed integration giving podcasters more uploading options, and users more listening options. “Creators want more than just a place to hit upload. They need sophisticated tools to grow their ambitions across Shorts, live, podcasts, and more,” he added. 

AI-Integration

The new CEO teased possible ways the platform can integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into content-making.

“Creators will be able to expand their storytelling and raise their production value, from virtually swapping outfits to creating a fantastical film setting through AI’s generative capabilities,” Mohan explained.  

However, the company is taking its time to develop these features, and they may roll out in the months to come according to the CEO. 

YouTube Community Protections

With community protection as one of its key priorities, YouTube is continually investing in teams, technology, and systems to ensure a safe experience for its users and creators.  

Mohan shared plans to make family-friendly videos easier to find via YouTube Kids and their supervised experience. “All of these efforts are critical, but as a parent, I am particularly invested in our work to protect kids on our platform,” he explained.  

YouTube’s other efforts include making the default for uploads set to private to protect people under 18, and engaging in the debate regarding Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in the U.S. that allows the company to remove harmful content.