It’s not just the major social platforms that know how effective an endless scroll of short videos is at hijacking your dopamine system. Disney+ is adding Verts, a selection of short vertical clips that you can scroll through to keep your brain chemistry happy while you’re in the bathroom So inclined. The company says this is a “dynamic feed” to help users “instantly find your next favorite watch,” allowing you to watch an entire movie or TV show directly from a clip of it. Not to mention the side benefit of eliminating those social platforms, many of which use cut-down clips of Disney-owned content anyway.
Disney said it would add vertical video to its Premiere streaming platform in January, and it also launched Verts on the ESPN app last year. Today, it said the addition of the vertical clip drove “additional engagement,” but didn’t mention how much. It’s worth noting that Disney is no outlier here — Netflix announced a similar pivot in January.
However, the company says that its recommendation engine has an “advanced algorithm” to ensure that clips are relevant to each user. Naturally, Disney is happy to rely on a century or more of content in its library, but also said Vert could expand it to include “content from creators that reflects our fans.” Which you can (and should) take as a plan to at least try to put a tank or two on YouTube’s front lawn.
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