During Alphabet’s earnings call, new YouTube Shorts stats and features were revealed, plus the next steps for YouTube on connected TVs.

YouTube’s short-form video features, and competitor to TikTok and Instagram Reels, Shorts was introduced in 2020. Today, YouTube Shorts averages 30 billion daily views, double the amount in July 2021 and four times the amount from March 2021.

As Shorts continues to grow, Google’s chief business officer told investors they have started testing advertisements. “While it’s still early days, we’re encouraged by initial advertiser feedback and results.” Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc. said during the call: “As we’ve always done with products, we focus on building a great user experience first, and we’ll work to build monetization over time.”

Outside of Shorts, YouTube’s overall ad-revenue saw growth of 14% to $6.87 billion. Despite the growth, this fell short of analyst expections by more than $600 million. Wall Street projected YouTube ad-revenue to hit $7.48 billion, but the results of a cooling off from the pace seen during the pandemic could have slowed growth.

YouTube subscription services on the other hand “continued to deliver substantial revenue growth” with services like YouTube TV, YouTube Premium and YouTube Music.

As more than 700 million hours of YouTube are streamed on connected televisions per day, YouTube look to improve interactivity features, such as allowing users to comment and share content.