How vertical video is reshaping social media

Nguyen Thanh, 31, a software engineer in Hanoi, says he often "accidentally" spends around two hours scrolling through Reels and TikTok every evening.

Because his job involves staring at a screen all day, he has no appetite for long-form content. He usually picks up his phone and scrolls through short videos as an unconscious reflex, often finding that "hours have passed without realizing it."

According to the Digital 2026 Vietnam report published late last year by media company We Are Social and technology services firm Meltwater, the average internet user over 16 in Vietnam spends 12 hours and 40 minutes per week watching online videos.

Video is the dominant form of online entertainment by a wide margin, one and a half times more popular than gaming, which is in second place at 8 hours and 21 minutes.

Internet access via mobile phone accounts for 96.9% of usage as against 54% on desktops and laptops, making the vertical video format, designed for mobile devices, important.

A person watches entertainment videos on a mobile phone. Photo by Luu Quy

Nguyen Lac Huy, manager at media entertainment company Schannel Network, says as users shift to watching video on their phones, the vertical format has become more optimal than horizontal.

Brands are falling in line with user preferences, with most now choosing short vertical video for advertising, he says. "On our platform, very few long-form video commissions come in. Content creators are now compelled to break long information into short vertical formats, or produce additional vertical content to retain viewers."

This is also a global trend that took hold after TikTok's explosive rise around 2019. Recognizing the success of vertical videos, Meta launched Reels in 2020 while YouTube introduced Shorts.

When the format first appeared, many people were skeptical or even put off by it, being accustomed to horizontal video, the format long associated with television, cinema, and YouTube. They felt it lacked depth and could not deliver a complete viewing experience.

But within a few years, the format has changed the way billions of people consume content online. Both Shorts and Reels follow TikTok's design, prioritizing algorithmic content recommendations over connections between accounts, making them more effective, and even addictive, tools for retaining users.

According to the Pew Research Center, 63% of teenagers in the U.S. cponsume TikTok, with 20% using it "almost constantly."

Meta has said Instagram users spend more than half their time on Reels, and estimated vertical video to become a $50 billion business for the company.

Last year, YouTube reported that Shorts reached 200 billion views per day and generated more revenue per hour of viewing than regular videos. A 2026 survey of 1,500 advertisers by marketing firm HubSpot found that short video accounted for 60% of the content companies use.

Half of those surveyed said it delivers the highest return on investment of any content format, up sharply from just 24% of advertisers who held that view in 2025.

Nguyen Dang Quynh, founder of MCN Vitamin Network, says since the majority of users spend close to hours every day on vertical videos, appearing there has become a mandatory strategy for effective business. "In advertising campaigns we run for brands today, short vertical video is almost the default."

According to American technology news publication The Verge, the format has become so dominant that Facebook is testing a new version of its app in which full-screen vertical video appears the moment the app is opened, meaning Reels would become the default experience rather than the news feed.

But the trend is having a negative impact on many users. Research shows that short video acclimates viewers to a constant stream of dopamine stimulation, gradually eroding their ability to sustain long-term focus.

Experts predict vertical video will continue to dominate, but that content will shift toward greater variety rather than remaining purely short and fast. "Short video will still be the mainstay, but we are seeing a segment of users who want longer, more in-depth content in vertical format," Huy says.

He says he has tried vertical videos of six to eight minutes in length and found them to achieve high engagement, and trend-chasing and rapidly updated content will always be favored by platform algorithms.

But Quynh says, compared to when TikTok and vertical video first exploded in Vietnam, platforms are "increasingly prioritizing content with depth, value, and series-based formats over content that is simply entertaining, goes viral instantly, and then disappears."

That said, the dominance of vertical video remains largely confined to the social media ecosystem.

Elsewhere, in cinema, television, journalism, online conferences, and content that needs to convey a large amount of information, horizontal video still holds the advantage thanks to its wide frame, superior storytelling capacity, and compatibility across a range of display devices.

"Vertical video is not replacing horizontal video; it is becoming the most fitting format for a new way of consuming content in the mobile era," Huy adds.