YouTube announced that its short-form video-sharing feature, YouTube Shorts, has now reached more than 1.5 billion monthly viewers. Two years after its launch, the service within YouTube has an audience comparable to that of its Chinese rival TikTok, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a report from Google.

TikTok's audience reached 1.6 billion monthly users in March 2022. A similar service created by Instagram – Reels – has gathered an audience of 2 billion active users.

YouTube to Stop Displaying the Dislike Count on Videos
By hiding the dislike count, the company wants to protect authors with a small number of subscribers from dislike attacks and foster a respectful relationship between content creators and their viewers.

YouTube Shorts was first launched in 2020 in India, becoming available in other countries a year later. YouTube Shorts are essentially short 60-second vertical videos designed to help creators and brands drive engagement and entertain their audiences. They can be uploaded to YouTube directly from the YouTube app.