According to reports, insiders at YouTube are afraid that the platform’s “Shorts” format – designed and implemented to compete with TikTok – might just lead to the video sharing site’s downfall. Here’s why.

The long and short of it: Senior staff at YouTube recently raised concerns to the Financial Times that the platform’s increasingly popular “Shorts” are drawing likes and views away from its signature longform videos. That means less money for the company, as the short form content doesn’t bring in nearly as many opportunities for ad placements, and consequently, ad revenue, as standard-length videos do.

These concerns are only exacerbated by the fact that many YouTubers seem to be uploading less and less longform content to their channels, choosing instead to lean into the short form video trends made popular by TikTok. That’s not a good spot for the company to be in, especially with recent financial reports showing a downward year-over-year slope in its ad revenue over the course of three straight quarters.

A prison of its own making: Worse still for the company, YouTube essentially has no choice but to keep on nurturing the very thing that’s threatening its longevity – no matter what these concerned insiders think. In order to stay in competition with TikTok and all the other apps short form video apps (looking at you, Instagram Reels), YouTube will most likely keep making updates and improvements to Shorts to encourage patrons to keep on using them. So far, these include new editing tools as well as the development of an AI program, for which YouTube has partnered with Google to help users produce higher quality short form content.