[Cwizard]

Do you have the youtube mobile app? These videos show up there with a dedicated UI, a bit like Instagram stories. I have never used TikTok but I imagine it is a bit the same concept and a market they are trying to compete in. My theory is that through these short video UI elements people watch a lot of them (it keeps playing new, short videos, no-end, a bit like infinite scrolling I guess), this gives these videos a lot of views, the normal recommendation system is not explicitly aware that these videos are 'special' and recommends them outside of the short video UI because they seem to be popular because they get a lot of views. Hence your recommendation page is full of 30 seconds videos you are not really interested in...

This is my theory because I don't think the short video concept works outside of the infinite loop. I uninstalled the YT app after this. I must admit I was spending too much time on it after they added it. Really a shame, I really liked YT.