YouTube’s New Shorts Feature Could Be Similar To TikTok

YouTube has had little real competition since its inception, and while there are plenty of other video platforms out there, none of them have seriously threatened YouTube – until TikTok came along that is. YouTube appears to be dealing with this new competition by working on something known as “Shorts,” a clear bid to keep users on the platform.

Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0

YouTube really hasn’t had much competition since it’s started. Sure there are plenty of other user-generated platforms like Vimeo, DailyMotion and Veoh, but they never seriously threatened the video giant. TikTok is a different story though, as it’s a different animal in that focuses on very short videos based around music. As a result, this is the first time that YouTube was ever an also-ran in the social conversation. YouTube is more than aware of the situation, and is reportedly working on a new feature called “Shorts” that it hopes will keep more people on the platform.

The website The Information reported that YT is working on Shorts to provide TikTok operation within the YouTube app. According to the site:

“Shorts will include a feed of brief videos posted by users inside the Google-owned app and will take advantage of the video service’s catalog of licensed music, songs from which will be available to use as soundtracks for the videos created by users.”

YouTube’s new feature would have a few advantages over TikTok. For instance, it already has extensive music licensing agreements in place, which means that there would be a lot more music to choose from for Shorts clips. YouTube also has a much larger daily user base by a factor of about 5, so influencers might find it better to stay on the platform to reach more potential viewers. Even better, YouTube has a better monetization system in place that influencers are already taking advantage of.

For artists and bands, TikTok has been somewhat of a head scratcher. Only short clips are used and only ones that lend themselves to memes at that. Users that stay on the YouTube rather than TikTok have more of a chance to pick a piece of an artist’s song than the current limited exposure on TikTok.

All that said, it’s easier to roll out a feature than it is to get people to adopt it. TikTok is hot now and it should be interesting to see if YouTube can capture some of its thunder.