Kevin Ferguson comes to life upon a question about an old, stodgy business school term. "Is there a first-mover advantage for some?" the YouTube exec repeats. "Potentially." Forgive him for being coy. Ferguson is the director of global operations and partnerships for Shorts, the 60-seconds-or-less short-form video platform YouTube first launched in 2020 as a direct answer to TikTok and Instagram Reels, which had staked long-standing leads in the space.