YouTube is gaining on TikTok in short-video race

YouTube said its viewership statistic counts logged-in users who watched at least one video on the Shorts platform in April. It declined to share historical user data. — Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash

More than 1.5 billion people watch YouTube Shorts every month, Alphabet Inc's Google disclosed on Wednesday, indicating the short-video service had reached a comparable scale to rival app TikTok after launching less than two years ago.

The figures provide a window into the hotly contested battle for supremacy in the short-video format, which is now central to how most people use social media.