YouTube's 2022 roadmap: NFT integration, immersive gaming videos and monetizing short videos

Google-owned YouTube has elaborated on its plans to tap the so-called Metaverse and blockchain-based technologies as part of its 2022 roadmap.

In an official blogpost, chief product officer Neal Mohan said on February 10 that YouTube was exploring how to make viewing videos more immersive, starting with gaming.

"We'll work to bring more interactions to games and make them feel more alive. It's still early days, but we're excited to see how we can turn these virtual worlds into a reality for viewers," Mohan said.

YouTube has supported virtual reality videos since 2016.

Metaverse is a term used for an online 3D universe where users will be able to work, meet, game and socialize with friends and colleagues in digital avatars. The concept has been around for long, but attracted major investments only in the past year by tech giants who view it as the next big computing platform.

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta recently changed its corporate name from Facebook to indicate its commitment to the metaverse and announced plans to spend at least $10 billion on building the platform.

Meanwhile, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the metaverse was the next big thing for the company and that it was building capabilities for both consumers and enterprises to access the platform.

The company is also buying video game maker Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in an all-cash deal, which Nadella said will play a critical role in the development of metaverse platforms.

Blockchain, NFTs

In his blogpost, Mohan said YouTube could also harness new technologies like blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to help creators build deeper relationships with their fans and develop new ways to make money.

"Giving a verifiable way for fans to own unique videos, photos, art, and even experiences from their favourite creators could be a compelling prospect for creators and their audience. There’s a lot to consider in making sure we approach these new technologies responsibly, but we think there’s incredible potential as well," he said.

Monetizing YouTube Shorts

In 2022, YouTube plans to test different ways creators can make money on its short-video offering YouTube Shorts that has had explosive growth since its launch in September 2020.

YouTube introduced a $100 million Shorts fund in May last year to reward top Shorts creators developing original content over the course of 2021-2022. In January, CEO Susan Wojcicki said over 40 percent of creators who received money from the fund last year weren't previously monetizing their content on the platform.

Read: YouTube Shorts is bringing a new breed of creators onto the platform: Satya Raghavan

In the coming months, YouTube aims to explore new ways for Shorts creators to build branded content through BrandConnect, bring in paid digital goods such as Super Chat into Shorts as well as test the ability for viewers to shop directly from the short video.

Mohan said the platform plans to introduce new features and capabilities for creators such as new video effects and editing tools along with the ability to reply to individual comments by creating a short video.

Future roadmap

In 2022, YouTube plans to introduce collaborative live streaming that allows creators to go live together and create interactive streams for their audiences.

Mohan said the platform also plans to soon allow viewers to use their phones to engage with YouTube content playing on television including the ability to read or leave comments or share videos with a friend, among others.

People are watching over 700 million hours of YouTube content on television on a daily basis as of January 2022, he said.

Another focus area for YouTube is improving its comments section. The service is currently testing the ability for creators to set channel guidelines to "shape the tone of conversations on their channel".

Viewers will also have the option to sort comments timed to the exact moment they're watching in a video.

"One of the most anticipated opportunities we'll bring to our brands this year is shopping. We're thinking about shoppable videos, live shopping, and, more broadly, how shopping appears across the app," Mohan said.