YouTube takes on TikTok with a new ‘Shorts’ feature

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YouTube to take on TikTok with a new ‘Shorts’ feature that lets users share brief videos and lip-syncing clips

  • TikTok allows users to share short videos lip-syncing and dancing  
  • It has become a pop culture phenomenon and taken over social media  
  • Its features have been widely imitated by rivals to reproduce its success 
  • YouTube is now reportedly developing a similar feature called ‘Shorts’ which will exist inside the current app  

By Joe Pinkstone For Mailonline

Published: | Updated:

YouTube is preparing to go head-to-head with viral sensation TikTok by launching its own short-form video platform, a report claims. 

According to The Information, the feature will be called ‘Shorts’ and exist inside the current YouTube app. 

It will allow creators to take advantage of YouTube’s vast catalogue of licensed music and create videos similar to those seen on TikTok, it is believed. 

Details of the potential feature are scarce – for example, it is not known what the time limit on videos will be, or when YouTube will roll out ‘Shorts’ to the masses.

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It will allow creators to take advantage of YouTube’s vast catalogue of licensed music and create videos similar to those seen on TikTok, it is believed. Details of the potential feature are scarce, such as a time limit on videos 

The feature was purportedly confirmed by YouTube CEO, Susan Wojcicki on a podcast due to be released later this month with Dylan Byers, a Senior Media Reporter at MSNBC. 

He tweeted: ‘This is potentially big…. And, bonus: YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki and I talked about TikTok in a podcast episode that will air later this month. 

‘We’ve got an item coming soon confirming this news, along with a few of her comments on YouTube & short-form video.’

MailOnline has approached YouTube for comment.  

TiKTok is a Chinese app developed by Beijing-based ByteDance and is predicted to have more than ten million users in the UK alone by the end of next year. 

TikTok is wildly popular with children and young adults due to the bitesize, easily-digestible content the app specialises in.

TikTok is wildly popular with children and young adults due to the bitesize, easily digestible content the app specialises in.  Its features have been widely imitated by rivals to reproduce its success YouTube is now reportedly developing a similar feature called 'Shorts'

TikTok is wildly popular with children and young adults due to the bitesize, easily digestible content the app specialises in.  Its features have been widely imitated by rivals to reproduce its success YouTube is now reportedly developing a similar feature called ‘Shorts’

According to SensorTower, a mobile analytics site, TikTok was the most downloaded social media app worldwide with 104.7 million installs in January. This represents a 46 per cent increase from January 2019 and puts it ahead of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

According to SensorTower, a mobile analytics site, TikTok was the most downloaded social media app worldwide with 104.7 million installs in January. This represents a 46 per cent increase from January 2019 and puts it ahead of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

WHAT IS TIKTOK?

TikTok is a Chinese social media app where users can live stream, create short videos and music videos and Gifs with a host of functions. 

TikTok’s tagline is ‘Make every second count’.

It was the most downloaded app in the US in 2018 and the world’s fourth most downloaded app in 2018, ahead of Instagram and Snapchat.

TikTok is known in China as Douyin where it was launched in 2016 and then made more widely available around the world in 2017.  

Douyin is still the version of the app used in China, available to download separately to TikTok.

Last year, the app was merged with popular music video lip-syncing app Musical.ly, also with headquarters in China. 

Most children use the app to film themselves lip-syncing to chart hits. 

It offers users a raft if colourful modification and editing tools including overlaying music, sound, animated stickers, filters and augmented reality (AR) for creating short videos. 

The Beijing based social network has more than 500 million active users and the company is now worth more than $75 billion (£58 billion). 

In January, it topped the list of most downloaded apps in both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, despite still being banned in China.

According to SensorTower, a mobile analytics site, TikTok was the most downloaded social media app worldwide in January 2020, with 104.7 million installs.

This represents a 46 per cent increase from January 2019 and puts it ahead of Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Industry analyst firm eMarketer has revealed TikTok will likely reach ten million users in the UK by next year.

It predicts that this year the UK user base of TikTok will grow 67.0 per cent to 8.12 million people and continue to grow and surpass ten million by 2021.

This unabated success and continued rise to popup culture phenom has seen its format and features imitated and replicated by rival companies. 

Instagram, which initially was pursuing a long-form video content with its IGTV, pillaged ts rival’s creative elements and made its own version.

It released a feature called reels which saw most of TikTok’s features cloned. 

Instagram’s parent company, Facebook, also released a TikTok clone titled Lasso.

YouTube has long been at the top of the mountain for video content, and despite TikTok’s success and several upstart contenders, has batted away competitors for more than a decade. 

It is still the go-to place for most people for video content, with more than two billion global monthly users. 

It has adapted its format to keep up with changing demands and the firm, owned by search giant Google, incorporated Snapchat-like stories and a new social feed.