Youtube’s New Additions

Youtube has been looking for new ways to innovate in its service. The latest additions to the platform are Youtube Shorts and a selection of videos for Mexico called “Mi Aula” (My classroom), featuring educational content for secondary and high school levels. This last addition was possible through the help of UNESCO. 

Youtube Shorts is the new way for the platform to compete against TikTok. This service is at the moment only available in the US and Mexico, with more than 6,000 million daily visits. According to Forbes, Shorts allows users to shoot vertical videos compatible with mobile devices that can be complemented with special effects and soundtracks drawn from a music library. These are the basic functions at the moment but the company did announce that they have more options planned. The first version of YouTube Shorts was released in India in September 2020 after TikTok was banned from the country. 

Ever since the release of TikTok, there has been an ongoing battle between the two platforms. The debate as to which one is better revolves around active versus passive viewing, information dissemination, derogatory and offensive content, ownership of the platforms and the effort required to get new subscribers on each app, as reported by Mirror Now News.  

YouTube’s other addition, as previously mentioned, is the channel called “Mi Aula.” According to Forbes, ever since the pandemic started, users have searched more than ever for videos to be able to learn something new or solve doubts on topics as complex as mathematics. “We wanted to make education a priority to support the learning process of students. We created “Mi Aula,” a channel (…) that was curated in collaboration with UNESCO with 2,641 videos from Argentina and Mexico,” said Director of YouTube Educational Content Alliances Daniela Guerra. At the moment, the channel has 1,775 videos, 897 for secondary education and 878 for high school education level. All videos are categorized by theme and education level. 

The videos were selected according to UNESCO and the Ministry of Public Education’s (SEP) standards. “71.9 percent of the content from Mexico was published between 2017 and 2020, being three years old at most. The selection was made to bring young people and teachers closer to the key issues of the 2030 agenda and the (UN’s) Sustainable Development Goals,” mentioned Gabriela Rodríguez, Consultant for Unesco Mexico, to Forbes.

In a previous MBN article, it was mentioned that during 2020, YouTube reached more than 55 million people of 18 years of age and older in Mexico and that this growth was driven by one device in particular: TV. With these new additions, YouTube could now increase its reach in the country by becoming an active participant in the education process.