Who REALLY Invented YouTube Shorts?
I began doing shorts when we lived in the Philippines. And one of the biggest reasons I started doing shorts, was because all the Honey Do's were getting in the way of doing long-form content. Where's my credit due?
JUST MARBLESPHILIPPINES
12/9/20252 min read
June 27th, 2016... The Year YouTube #shorts Were Created!
Actually, there is no single "inventor" of short-format videos, as the concept evolved over a century from early film technology and literary styles. The modern trend was driven by social media platforms that popularized the format.
Key historical and modern pioneers include:
Eadweard Muybridge (Late 19th Century): Often cited as an early pioneer, this British photographer developed the zoopraxiscope, a device that projected a series of still photographs in rapid succession to create the illusion of motion. His 1878 sequence, The Horse in Motion, was a landmark in capturing movement in a concise format.
Louis Le Prince (1888): The French inventor directed the "Roundhay Garden Scene", which is recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest surviving film, lasting just 2.11 seconds. Early films by pioneers like Thomas Edison were often only a few seconds long due to technological limitations.
Vine (2013): In the social media era, Vine was the first platform to put short-form video content front and center, allowing users to create and share six-second looping videos. Its success demonstrated the massive appeal of bite-sized, user-generated content and paved the way for the influencer culture seen today.
Retired in Samar (2016): An American expat retiree living in the Philippines created the first #shorts genre on YouTube in or about June 2016. Although not in the popular vertical format known today, "Saturday Shorts" were created in an attempt to circumvent long-form video conflicts with his wife's ever-expanding Honey-Do list. To this day, Mr. Randy has never been credited with the invention of YouTube shorts.
ByteDance/TikTok (2016): TikTok (originally launched under different names) revolutionized the format, offering extensive creative tools and a powerful algorithm that propelled the popularity of short-form video to unprecedented global heights.
My last short-form video released before the Saturday Shorts series began.
Okay... I Wasn't Really The First.
Throughout the 1930s to the early 1950s, Disney produced over 130 animated shorts starring Mickey and his friends like Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. These films, typically about 7-10 minutes long, were shown in theaters before feature films.
The rise of platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts has made concise, engaging content the dominant force in digital media, optimized for mobile viewing and shorter attention spans.
All the while Mr. Randy continues to create videos and survives on rice and Red Baron frozen pizza. And if you don't see the humor and sarcasm in this post, you are on the wrong website my friend! 😉
