Decoding YouTube handles, the platform’s biggest recent move as it turns 17

Representational image. (Photo: Christian Wiediger via Unsplash)

TikTok might be a non-entity in India since its 2020 ban but it’s acquiring young audiences globally at a stupendous rate that has two of the world’s most influential online platforms worried. Sample this — app-metrics platform Sensor Tower revealed that TikTok’s monthly active users increased by 234 per cent in the second quarter of 2022 (vis-à-vis the same period in 2019). By contrast, YouTube’s numbers only shot up by 29 per cent. Apptopia also confirmed that TikTok was the most downloaded app globally in 2021. Is it this tectonic shift that has prompted YouTube’s newest move?

All you need to know about YouTube’s handles

If you’re a Gmail user, you might have received an email communication from Google about YouTube handles. The communication highlights how your handle (similar to your username with an @ prefix on Twitter or Instagram) will be make it easier for members of the YouTube community to connect with each other. It will be unique to your channel and will be how people mention you in comments, community posts, and more.

It's not just for YouTube creators

YouTube has clarified that these handles will be available for every YouTube user whether you’re a creator and irrespective of your subscriber base. For instance I received an invitation despite uploading just one video on an inactive Gmail account over a five-year period. Established creators will however receive access to features first. YouTube will reserve your  existing personalised URL (if you already use one) as your handle. You can change this or choose a handle for your channel. The email communication also adds that starting on November 14, 2022, if you haven’t yet selected a handle for your channel, YouTube will automatically assign you a handle, which you can change in YouTube Studio if you'd like.

Driven by YouTube Shorts?

TikTok’s dramatic rise underlines the market shift to shorter videos. That’s one reason why YouTube is rolling out handles. The company also announced at its recent "Made on YouTube" event that it’s making it easier for creators to make money on the platform. YouTube confirmed that it plans to share 45 per cent of the revenue (with Shorts creators) generated by ads that play in between videos, starting in early 2023.

Nipping at the heels

In Mark Bergen’s recent book on YouTube – Like, Comment, Subscribe, he shares an insight from an industry veteran — “Google made the wheel, Facebook and every other internet company copied it”, TikTok has combined YouTube’s recommendation system and the Facebook feed. It’s clearly working. YouTube is still the world’s leading online streaming platform with over 2 billion monthly active users but a recent Pew Research Study of American teens suggests that TikTok is becoming the "go to" platform for teens in the US. According to this study, 95 per cent of American teens use YouTube and 19 per cent are on the platform almost constantly. The corresponding numbers for TikTok are 67 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively. The platform has already overtaken Instagram and Snapchat while Facebook that was the preferred platform during Pew’s 2015 survey has seen younger audiences move away. Mark Zuckerberg has also cited TikTok’s growing influence as one of the reasons for why Facebook lost half a million globally daily users in the fourth quarter of 2021. Pew’s findings sum this up — 32 per cent of teens use Facebook on 2022 compared to 71 per cent in 2014-15. It’s not just Facebook, the Wall Street Journal reported that according to internal Meta research Instagram users cumulatively spend less than 10 per cent of the time per day on Reels that TikTok users spend on TikTok.

Wanted: Content creators

As the world shifts to short-format videos, the big challenge for all platforms is to draw people into crafting content at a time when attention spans are shrinking. This could be one of the key drivers for YouTube handles. While YouTube is still home to seasoned Content creators, TikTok seems to be the preferred platform for first-time content creators who have nailed the art of 45-second storytelling and become stars in their own right. India was a case in point. At its peak and before its 2020 ban, TikTok users peaked at over 200 million users in India. Many of the content creators made the shift to Instagram and Reels.

According to Statista, as of January 2022, India hit a total of 230.25 million Instagram users, the largest Instagram user base in the world. The United States had 159.75 million users. It’s the same with YouTube where India leads the world with approximately 467 million users (as of April 2022). It’s a huge number and YouTube will hope that the new YT handles can leverage this to take on Instagram in India and the 136.5 million user base of TikTok users in the US. Have you got your handle yet?