YouTube Shorts has celebrated this autumn its first anniversary with more than 15 billion daily views.
Pushed by the boom of TikTok, in September 2020 the Google video platform launched in India its short video service.
One year later, it is still in beta but available to everyone globally, and its figures continue growing. Could it eventually kill TikTok?
Short videos on YouTube
YouTube Shorts added its new feature to the main app instead of creating a brand-new one to confront its rival.
By doing so, they could drag their YouTube content creators and the 2 billion users to their latest video hosting service.
The strategy seems to be working so far. According to YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet, Shorts “surpassed 15 billion daily views” in the summer and continue “to see higher adoption rates” this autumn.
TikTok, on the other hand, has 1 billion active global users, reported the company this September.
TikTok inspiration
Apart from the length of the videos, the two platforms are also rivals for their shooting and editing features.
Copying TikTok style, Shorts allows shooting, editing, and uploading clips up to 60 seconds long.
There are some differences, though: Shorts grants editing after publishing and using sequences of longer YouTube videos, and it has a Dislike button.
YouTube leads news consumption
Viral content is predominant in short video format, but there’s still a niche for news consumption.
The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2021 describes a growing trend in TikTok – from 1% of users using the app to stay informed in 2020 to 3% this year.
However, it can’t compete with YouTube: with 20% of the users using it to watch the news, it is just 12 points behind Facebook.
So, it might be too early to say if the new feature can eventually kill TikTok, but all these key points could work out well for YouTube.
I’m a digital-skilled journalist, interested in social issues and Human Rights. I’ve published in El País and ElNacional.cat, among others.
MA Interactive Journalism at City, University of London.