Make money doing the work you believe in
The Wall Street Journal profiled Kareem Rahma, the host behind the Instagram hit Subway Takes who’s now launching a longform show on YouTube.
Rahma’s journey mirrors that of almost every shortform video star: eventually, they all try to transition into longform content.
While there are likely several motivations behind this shift — including the chance to stretch their creative muscles — the main driver is economic. Shortform video doesn’t lend itself well to ad breaks, since viewers can instantly scroll to the next clip. As a result, creators working in shortform typically have to rely on separate sponsored videos to monetize their content.
The problem is that Instagram and TikTok quickly throttle the distribution of fully sponsored posts, forcing brands to spend additional money on “branded content ads” to boost a video’s reach. In practice, that means the platforms are siphoning off revenue that would otherwise go directly to the creator.
That’s why every creator eventually pivots to longform. For one, these videos are mostly distributed on YouTube, which shares nearly 50% of its revenue with creators. But even more importantly, longform videos allow for actual ad breaks — both programmatic and custom sponsorships.
Of course, this shift would be a lot less necessary if Instagram and TikTok simply shared more revenue with shortform creators, but it seems like that ship has sailed. In fact, Instagram has actually reined in most of the creator bonuses it used to pay out.
And yet creators keep uploading their original content to the platform, so it has no real motivation to change.