7 ms·

I remember a time when crossing the 10 minute mark was really stretching it on YouTube. Nowadays most videos hit the 1 hour mark... I'm not sure if this is what

I remember a time when crossing the 10 minute mark was really stretching it on YouTube. Nowadays most videos hit the 1 hour mark... I'm not sure if this is what the market demands, or this is just Google nudging creators in this direction. Fortunately people still make short videos, like this (relevant) one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0WWbpBxLCI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0WWbpBxLCI

labster 2y ago
I remember a time when YouTube was limited to 10 minute videos, and we watched Hollywood movies on there, 10 minutes per segment.
- zoklet-enjoyer 2y ago
  That was back before Google purchased YouTube and they had their own video service called Google Video. Google Video was great because they didn't have that limit.
bdndndndbve 2y ago
Pretty sure the answer is ads. "Long-form" content has more opportunities to insert ads or sponsored content. There's not a lot of money to be made being quick and to the point. People's viewing habits have also changed in response, rather than having the algorithm bounce them around they'd rather half-pay-attention to a 3 hour video. But I think the trend of ever-growing video lengths was spawned by a desire for more revenue.
- AlotOfReading 2y ago
  The market bifurcated. Short form content became Snapchat and tiktoks and YouTube shorts. There were never any significant competitors to YouTube for long form content because of how expensive streaming it is, so all of that content remained on the one platform with an audience and decent payouts.
  - galangalalgol 2y ago
    I only go to youtube when I want to learn something that is hard to explain with pictures. Usually that is diy stuff for me, but I can see it being something like a dance move or a boss fight in a game, those things take longer than a minute to explain but never take more than 15 unless it is padded.
- ashoeafoot 2y ago
  Also you can split out shorts.
- jamesy0ung 2y ago
  I quite like to grab the transcript from youtube and ask chatgpt to give me the key points.
  - bredren 2y ago
    What is your workflow for this? I recently described a manual workflow that includes extracting comments and combining them with the transcript using a system prompt. I’m curious how others are approaching this. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42901077 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42901077
    - jamesy0ung 2y ago
      YouTube generates a transcript that’s on the sidebar (above the recommended videos). It is kind of broken text though, so I copy and paste the block into Gemini (it’s free and has a huge context) and ask it to read it and generate the points for me
- singron 2y ago
  Youtube used to add mid-roll ads to videos that were at least 10 minutes, so your video would basically make twice as much if you stretched it that long. I think the threshold is 8 minutes nowadays. Short form is hard to monetize (if you are Google 8 years ago) since you need to split ad revenue and attribution among the several videos you watch between ads. This goes against a ton of prior trends in the ad industry where last touch attribution is still king and ad fraud is hard to combat. If course tiktok did it late with creator rewards.
  - xnorswap 2y ago
    > Youtube used to add mid-roll ads to videos that were at least 10 minutes YouTube used to not let you go over 10 minutes at all, but that's a very long time ago now. You'd get guides split up into "... Part 3 of 7"
mindcrime 2y ago
Fortunately people still make short videos Interesting. I don't see anything fortunate about that myself. I guess it's a "different strokes for different folks" thing. Personally, I rarely watch any video that's less than 20 minutes long. I think of short videos as being too small to contain enough useful info to be worth my time (although that's obviously not literally true for all short videos). And generally speaking, I prefer videos that are 30 minutes to an hour long, that really dive into the nitty gritty of some topic. I don't know how representative of "the market" I am (probably not very) but I can at least attest that there are those of us out there with this particular preference.
- LPisGood 2y ago
  The problem with everyone making long videos is that it leads to a situation where, intentional or not, it seems like everyone is trying to waste your time. Some things just aren’t worth talking about for that long.
  - nomius10 2y ago
    Pretty much this. A short video is a fairly strong indication that the author did his work and respects your time, while a long one is a fair indication of the opposite. I've come to recognize some red flags in longer videos, such as including unnecessary bloopers, reading very slowly, reading long and frequent definitions, going on tangents, and generally not synthesizing the information enough such that all the bits presented tie into the main topic. I would lie if I said that I don't consume long form documentaries on Youtube. I do and there are some channels that I deeply enjoy. But for a while, especially since they removed the dislike button, I've become wary of discovering new channels. It's often hit or miss, and the overall time investment doesn't look justifiable in retrospect. For this exact reason, I've removed all my subscriptions, and disabled all recommendations. I mostly poll for channels that I remember had good content that was meaningful to me.
    - hluska 2y ago
      There’s a third option that I’ve run into since I’ve started learning how to create video content. I have a bit of a background in print journalism so telling stories that convey information isn’t new to me. By the end, I was pretty good at conveying enough information in a limited number of inches. Video is a totally different beast and short videos are very hard. I have a couple of 10 minute videos that may as well be presented in a foreign language that I don’t speak…and I made them. Reading this, I think I’m just going to quit. It’s really not worth the time investment.
4ad 2y ago
It's exactly backwards, YouTube favours short videos and frequent uploads. People doing long videos do it purely out of passion. The claim that most videos nowadays are hitting the one hour mark is trivially false.
- cgriswald 2y ago
  I simply can't believe there isn't some incentive for longer videos. It may be that YouTube only cares about total watch time and doesn't care if a creator pushes lots of short ones or a few long ones, as long as viewers keep viewing. I see so many videos like this: Tie Shoes Like a Pro "If you're watching this video you probably want to know the secrets to good shoe tying. We'll show you how in this video. It's surprisingly easy, so don't go anywhere. But first, have you ever wondered why we tie our shoes? The first shoes weren't actually tied but were just soles that people nailed to their feet. <Cue hammer sound effect and scream> Haha, actually this didn't hurt at all because... <10 minutes pass> ...and then in 1890 Eritrea was founded, but you don't care about that! Haha! You're here to learn how to tie shoes! Don't worry, we'll get to that too! Anyway, also in 1890 all the leather factories in France burned down and so they couldn't spare leather for shoe buckles, so they began using bits of string..."
  - lupusreal 2y ago
    The "youtube meta" has changed overtime and not all creators have stayed current with it, so you can find old videos which were once optimized for youtube but no longer are, or new videos being created in an outdated style. With some channels though, I think they've decided to make suboptimal videos from the youtube algorithm perspective because they're getting most of their revenue from a loyal fanbase donating to them on patron/etc, so they cater to the preferences of that specific crowd.
    - Gigachad 2y ago
      There could be multiple valid strategies too. I’ve seen some creators will put out a video once every few months, but that video will be shown on everyone’s feed and will get millions of views. While mass content posters like gaming channels probably get less exposure or their videos spend less time on the top.
vunderba 2y ago
I'm guessing you're either missing or deliberately excluding the HUGE push by Youtube for "Youtube Shorts". Personally, I vastly prefer long (20+ minute) videos. However short videos are good for quick DIY / tutorials when I'm unable to find a written equivalent.
- RockRobotRock 2y ago
  I don’t think the rise of shorts is mutually exclusive with longer videos being pushed on the platform, as well. Many people leave YouTube on in the background, but it doesn’t make sense to do that with TikTok style clips
- fsckboy 2y ago
  the huge push for youtube shorts is to compete with tiktok and instagram for that segment of the market. the longer form videos are a different segment of the market, they aren't entirely related
csa 2y ago
> Nowadays most videos hit the 1 hour mark... I'm not sure if this is what the market demands For many genres, this is simply what pays the most for the creators. Some people just flip on a video and let it play — maybe just in the background, maybe as they fall asleep. The ads that get played when they aren’t paying attention still generate revenue for the creator. This is one reason why any working streamer should pretty much always have some sort of a long-form channel. It makes bank for relatively little additional effort.
chowells 2y ago
You should try watching the video instead of complaining about it's length. It turns out that it actually takes a bit of time to cover the history of Russia and Germany sufficiently well to explain the situation. Yes, those turn out to be relevant to answering the question.
- nomius10 2y ago
  I gave it a go, not to the video in the OP, but another one that caught my eye - the one about gatcha and korean gender wars. I got through the end and found out that it was actually a part 1, the second part being almost 2 hours. I'm low-key upset about this situation.
phreack 2y ago
They used to pay by the view, now they pay by the minute. I think it's that simple.
- RockRobotRock 2y ago
  People also use YouTube in different ways than they used to. Leaving it on in the background while they do something else. I’m sure YouTube’s algorithm is good at detecting which videos perform well even when you’re only listening to it.
  - Gigachad 2y ago
    People are largely watching YouTube on their TV now instead of on a laptop/desktop. And mobile users are on tiktok. Personally I find it annoying to watch 15 minute videos on the tv since you’re always having to go back to the remote and find something new.

labster 2y ago

I remember a time when YouTube was limited to 10 minute videos, and we watched Hollywood movies on there, 10 minutes per segment.

zoklet-enjoyer 2y ago
That was back before Google purchased YouTube and they had their own video service called Google Video. Google Video was great because they didn't have that limit.

bdndndndbve 2y ago

Pretty sure the answer is ads. "Long-form" content has more opportunities to insert ads or sponsored content. There's not a lot of money to be made being quick and to the point. People's viewing habits have also changed in response, rather than having the algorithm bounce them around they'd rather half-pay-attention to a 3 hour video. But I think the trend of ever-growing video lengths was spawned by a desire for more revenue.

AlotOfReading 2y ago
The market bifurcated. Short form content became Snapchat and tiktoks and YouTube shorts. There were never any significant competitors to YouTube for long form content because of how expensive streaming it is, so all of that content remained on the one platform with an audience and decent payouts.
- galangalalgol 2y ago
  I only go to youtube when I want to learn something that is hard to explain with pictures. Usually that is diy stuff for me, but I can see it being something like a dance move or a boss fight in a game, those things take longer than a minute to explain but never take more than 15 unless it is padded.
ashoeafoot 2y ago
Also you can split out shorts.
jamesy0ung 2y ago
I quite like to grab the transcript from youtube and ask chatgpt to give me the key points.
- bredren 2y ago
  What is your workflow for this? I recently described a manual workflow that includes extracting comments and combining them with the transcript using a system prompt. I’m curious how others are approaching this. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42901077 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42901077
  - jamesy0ung 2y ago
    YouTube generates a transcript that’s on the sidebar (above the recommended videos). It is kind of broken text though, so I copy and paste the block into Gemini (it’s free and has a huge context) and ask it to read it and generate the points for me
singron 2y ago
Youtube used to add mid-roll ads to videos that were at least 10 minutes, so your video would basically make twice as much if you stretched it that long. I think the threshold is 8 minutes nowadays. Short form is hard to monetize (if you are Google 8 years ago) since you need to split ad revenue and attribution among the several videos you watch between ads. This goes against a ton of prior trends in the ad industry where last touch attribution is still king and ad fraud is hard to combat. If course tiktok did it late with creator rewards.
- xnorswap 2y ago
  > Youtube used to add mid-roll ads to videos that were at least 10 minutes YouTube used to not let you go over 10 minutes at all, but that's a very long time ago now. You'd get guides split up into "... Part 3 of 7"

mindcrime 2y ago

Fortunately people still make short videos Interesting. I don't see anything fortunate about that myself. I guess it's a "different strokes for different folks" thing. Personally, I rarely watch any video that's less than 20 minutes long. I think of short videos as being too small to contain enough useful info to be worth my time (although that's obviously not literally true for all short videos). And generally speaking, I prefer videos that are 30 minutes to an hour long, that really dive into the nitty gritty of some topic. I don't know how representative of "the market" I am (probably not very) but I can at least attest that there are those of us out there with this particular preference.

LPisGood 2y ago
The problem with everyone making long videos is that it leads to a situation where, intentional or not, it seems like everyone is trying to waste your time. Some things just aren’t worth talking about for that long.
- nomius10 2y ago
  Pretty much this. A short video is a fairly strong indication that the author did his work and respects your time, while a long one is a fair indication of the opposite. I've come to recognize some red flags in longer videos, such as including unnecessary bloopers, reading very slowly, reading long and frequent definitions, going on tangents, and generally not synthesizing the information enough such that all the bits presented tie into the main topic. I would lie if I said that I don't consume long form documentaries on Youtube. I do and there are some channels that I deeply enjoy. But for a while, especially since they removed the dislike button, I've become wary of discovering new channels. It's often hit or miss, and the overall time investment doesn't look justifiable in retrospect. For this exact reason, I've removed all my subscriptions, and disabled all recommendations. I mostly poll for channels that I remember had good content that was meaningful to me.
  - hluska 2y ago
    There’s a third option that I’ve run into since I’ve started learning how to create video content. I have a bit of a background in print journalism so telling stories that convey information isn’t new to me. By the end, I was pretty good at conveying enough information in a limited number of inches. Video is a totally different beast and short videos are very hard. I have a couple of 10 minute videos that may as well be presented in a foreign language that I don’t speak…and I made them. Reading this, I think I’m just going to quit. It’s really not worth the time investment.

4ad 2y ago

It's exactly backwards, YouTube favours short videos and frequent uploads. People doing long videos do it purely out of passion. The claim that most videos nowadays are hitting the one hour mark is trivially false.

cgriswald 2y ago
I simply can't believe there isn't some incentive for longer videos. It may be that YouTube only cares about total watch time and doesn't care if a creator pushes lots of short ones or a few long ones, as long as viewers keep viewing. I see so many videos like this: Tie Shoes Like a Pro "If you're watching this video you probably want to know the secrets to good shoe tying. We'll show you how in this video. It's surprisingly easy, so don't go anywhere. But first, have you ever wondered why we tie our shoes? The first shoes weren't actually tied but were just soles that people nailed to their feet. <Cue hammer sound effect and scream> Haha, actually this didn't hurt at all because... <10 minutes pass> ...and then in 1890 Eritrea was founded, but you don't care about that! Haha! You're here to learn how to tie shoes! Don't worry, we'll get to that too! Anyway, also in 1890 all the leather factories in France burned down and so they couldn't spare leather for shoe buckles, so they began using bits of string..."
- lupusreal 2y ago
  The "youtube meta" has changed overtime and not all creators have stayed current with it, so you can find old videos which were once optimized for youtube but no longer are, or new videos being created in an outdated style. With some channels though, I think they've decided to make suboptimal videos from the youtube algorithm perspective because they're getting most of their revenue from a loyal fanbase donating to them on patron/etc, so they cater to the preferences of that specific crowd.
  - Gigachad 2y ago
    There could be multiple valid strategies too. I’ve seen some creators will put out a video once every few months, but that video will be shown on everyone’s feed and will get millions of views. While mass content posters like gaming channels probably get less exposure or their videos spend less time on the top.

vunderba 2y ago

I'm guessing you're either missing or deliberately excluding the HUGE push by Youtube for "Youtube Shorts". Personally, I vastly prefer long (20+ minute) videos. However short videos are good for quick DIY / tutorials when I'm unable to find a written equivalent.

RockRobotRock 2y ago
I don’t think the rise of shorts is mutually exclusive with longer videos being pushed on the platform, as well. Many people leave YouTube on in the background, but it doesn’t make sense to do that with TikTok style clips
fsckboy 2y ago
the huge push for youtube shorts is to compete with tiktok and instagram for that segment of the market. the longer form videos are a different segment of the market, they aren't entirely related

csa 2y ago

> Nowadays most videos hit the 1 hour mark... I'm not sure if this is what the market demands For many genres, this is simply what pays the most for the creators. Some people just flip on a video and let it play — maybe just in the background, maybe as they fall asleep. The ads that get played when they aren’t paying attention still generate revenue for the creator. This is one reason why any working streamer should pretty much always have some sort of a long-form channel. It makes bank for relatively little additional effort.

chowells 2y ago

You should try watching the video instead of complaining about it's length. It turns out that it actually takes a bit of time to cover the history of Russia and Germany sufficiently well to explain the situation. Yes, those turn out to be relevant to answering the question.

nomius10 2y ago
I gave it a go, not to the video in the OP, but another one that caught my eye - the one about gatcha and korean gender wars. I got through the end and found out that it was actually a part 1, the second part being almost 2 hours. I'm low-key upset about this situation.

phreack 2y ago

They used to pay by the view, now they pay by the minute. I think it's that simple.

RockRobotRock 2y ago
People also use YouTube in different ways than they used to. Leaving it on in the background while they do something else. I’m sure YouTube’s algorithm is good at detecting which videos perform well even when you’re only listening to it.
- Gigachad 2y ago
  People are largely watching YouTube on their TV now instead of on a laptop/desktop. And mobile users are on tiktok. Personally I find it annoying to watch 15 minute videos on the tv since you’re always having to go back to the remote and find something new.