A year for change
YouTube is capitalizing on the ever-increasing popularity of NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, to provide content creators with greater opportunities. In her yearly letter to content creators, CEO Susan Wojcicki outlined plans for the video-sharing platform’s stance on NFTs.“We're always focused on expanding the YouTube ecosystem to help creators capitalize on emerging technologies, including things like NFTs while continuing to strengthen and enhance the creators and fans of the experience have on YouTube,” she said.
The letter also hinted at several emerging sectors that YouTube will focus on this year including gaming, shopping, music, and YouTube Shorts, its short-form video format that has accumulated over 5 trillion views since it launched in 2020.
A growing trend
It comes within months of Instagram and Twitter also announcing plans to venture into the world of NFTs this year.Just last week, for example, Twitter announced the launch of a tool that will allow users to display their JPGs as NFTs through a hexagonal profile picture.
Instagram is also preparing to launch a similar feature that will see users displaying NFTs they already hold on the platform.
In response to this global trend, a growing number of smaller social media platforms and retailers are also in the process of gradually integrating NFTs into their existing business models with promising results so far.
