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How it began

Early on, each social and media service held a distinct character. YouTube hosted television excerpts and movie segments alongside an expanding group of independent creators. Instagram focused mainly on still images. Netflix aimed to deliver on-demand premium series. Facebook centered on personal connections. Twitter emphasized current events. Snapchat served as a tool for private messages.

Yet these services shared a key trait: they evolved together with mobile phones. Millions of fresh users joined the online world, producing material suited to the narrow, tall screens they carried. Self-portraits became a vertical style because the images filled the display more fully and because gripping the device upright made shooting simpler. Some fought the vertical format for ages, claiming human vision scans side to side and that tall clips appeared odd on wide computer screens. Phones prevailed, however, and users keep devices upright, so experiences shifted to match. Entertainment followed the same path.

Snap recognized the pattern early. It introduced Stories near the end of 2013 as a casual method to track friends activities. Chief executive Evan Spiegel described it as an entirely fresh method to share daily moments with close contacts or a wider audience. The feature spread rapidly and by mid-2014 ranked as Snapchats top tool. Mark Zuckerberg often spots such rapid growth, and by August 2016 Instagram had replicated the format almost exactly. Then-Instagram leader Kevin Systrom credited Spiegel and Snapchat fully for the idea. The message was clear: the tool no longer belonged to one network alone but had become common. Similar features soon appeared on LinkedIn, Tinder, Medium, and elsewhere.

Stories did not always feature moving images, yet as cameras and data speeds advanced, video took over many temporary feeds. Video stories offered two notable advantages: they fit endless casual browsing perfectly and allowed ads to blend in smoothly. Only months after Stories arrived on Instagram, when half the users already engaged with them, Facebook began inserting ads heavily. The mixed nature of Stories made promotions feel less out of place, mixing pet photos, hiking clips, clothing ads, beauty routines, meal images, and cosmetics promotions. Video promotions occupied the full screen, felt higher quality, and generated stronger revenue for the platforms.

Setting aside the brief but creative run of Vine, the six-second clip service that shaped much of video-centric social media, real change arrived when TikTok rose. The service reached the United States in 2018 after gaining traction in China under Douyin and in other regions as Musical.ly. TikTok merged the tall format of Stories with the lasting nature of YouTube while simplifying video creation further. It included effects similar to Instagram and Snapchat, supplied constant ideas via trends, granted music and audio access, and enabled easy video combinations or responses.

By leading with an algorithmic For You page, TikTok let creators skip profile polishing or posting limits, allowing steady output while the system handled distribution. Users responded by creating large volumes of clips. TikTok quickly became one of the quickest expanding apps worldwide, with daily usage figures that impressed competitors. Although Instagram counted more accounts, TikTok users devoted far more minutes to the service.

Once TikTok surged, nearly every platform adopted vertical video. Reels appeared in 2020 and grew central to Instagram and Facebook. YouTube introduced Shorts the following year. By late 2021 Twitter had tested and ended a comparable tool named Fleets. Full-screen vertical scrolling video had become standard on phones. In pursuit of greater interaction, platforms also adopted another TikTok lesson: rely less on friend posts and more on algorithmic suggestions. Traditional social networks faded, giving way to social media as pure entertainment with comment sections attached.

How matters stand

Brief vertical video now rules online spaces. Revenue grows steadily and audiences show little sign of stopping. Meta reported in 2024 that Instagram users devoted over half their time to Reels, and in 2025 the feature was projected to generate fifty billion dollars yearly across Meta properties. Roughly sixty-three percent of younger adults and teens use TikTok according to Pew Research Center data, with one in five teens describing their use as nearly nonstop. YouTube noted two hundred billion daily Shorts views by the close of 2025 and stated that Shorts produced higher income per viewing minute than regular videos.

The past several years brought rapid uniformity across social platforms. The speed at which these products replicate one another and converge has been remarkable. Shorts and Reels first copied TikToks layout, response features, and ties to audio tracks. They then embraced the focus on content over personal ties, shifting from followers to algorithmic delivery. TikTok expanded commerce tools, prompting Reels and Shorts to add shopping options. YouTube grew on television screens, leading TikTok and Instagram to develop their own TV versions. Clip lengths increased everywhere to fit more promotions. All services explored live broadcasts and short dramatic series. They matched on larger updates such as user algorithm controls and smaller details such as Clear Mode.

While social platforms circle one another, outside firms have joined. Numerous companies noticed their material circulating on social feeds, sometimes without clear permission, and sought to capture viewing time themselves. Spotify added a vertical video feed to become a video destination. Disney created TikTok-style tools for ESPN and Disney Plus, both labeled Verts. Netflix, Prime Video, and Paramount Plus each built similar clip sections named Clips.

Two forces drive the continued spread of short vertical video: time on screen and advertising revenue. The scrolling video stream ranks among the most absorbing entertainment formats created, creating regulatory attention for the platforms, and in fierce competition for attention it remains the strongest option. In 2024, when Meta set vertical playback as default across its services, the shift was complete.

At the same time, as platforms hold more attention, short video has become a leading ad format, so marketers already produce promotions sized for feed placement. With many firms turning to artificial intelligence for ad placement, the main need is simply the creative material. As YouTubes Brian Albert noted last year, once clients supply varied assets such as six-second, fifteen-second, long, or vertical ads, AI manages the rest including audience selection, placement, and delivery. The mix of AI and vertical video reinforces itself: greater success makes adoption simpler, sustaining the cycle.

What comes ahead

Critics of vertical video face continued growth. TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram will likely emphasize short vertical clips even more because they are simple to produce and load into scrolling feeds. Video services once required users to select and start playback, yet now merely opening an app triggers ad delivery. Platforms have little reason to reverse course. Evidence of video dominance appears in Facebook testing a full-screen video feed on launch. If adopted, the service would become Reels only. After training audiences to expect rapid, immediate entertainment, even feature-length films can seem demanding.

Meanwhile, after repeated price increases, streaming services worldwide look to advertising for expansion. They once leaned on traditional television ads for digital use, yet a TikTok-style ad fits poorly on Netflix, so the service built a TikTok-like experience. A recent HubSpot study showed short video as the most common and effective marketing format in 2025, with marketers planning heaviest investment there this year.

Still, early signs of change appear. Some users, weary of algorithms, seek a return to friend and family content in social apps. More broadly, growing numbers of younger people set phones aside, limit AI exposure, and seek alternative entertainment. Cinemas report strong attendance, and one notable new phone this year is a basic flip model. Within the current social and entertainment landscape, vertical video will continue to lead. Only a broad cultural change could alter that path, and such a shift may be underway.

Additional notes

The clearest view of TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat today treats them as both a streaming service and a message inbox. Research shows the top activity is watching clips while the second is forwarding clips to others. Original posting ranks much lower. YouTube, for its part, works to expand direct messaging.
If this analysis seems overstated, the reader may simply belong to an older group. YouTube and Facebook span ages and backgrounds, yet Pew and similar studies show TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram are nearly universal among younger users.
View counts can mislead. Every online service has reason to present its platform as large and active, leading them to create new measures as needed.

How it began

How matters stand

What comes ahead

Additional notes

Further reading