YouTube wants to give its TikTok rival Shorts a competitive advantage. The company confirmed that it is expanding a recent global test that defaults to opening the YouTube mobile app right in Shorts if the user has watched short videos before exiting. In other words, you will not be directed to the YouTube homepage when you return to the app, but instead into the short video experience.
- The test: The company said the test, which was publicly announced recently, only runs for a small percentage of global users on iOS. YouTube now wants to expand the experiment to Android. The test is only aimed at users who are concerned with YouTube’s answer to TikTok, known as Shorts. YouTube Shorts was first launched in India over a year ago, arrived in the US in March this year, and has since expanded to other global markets during the course of 2021
- Platform: The short video platform allows users to create up to 60-second videos of music, original audio, or “remixed” content taken from other YouTube videos – unless the YouTubers have decided against their content in Shorts can be reused. Like TikTok and its Instagram and Snapchat competitors, Shorts includes video creation tools that allow users to either upload videos or film new content right in the app.
- Functions: It also offers a number of basic editing functions to adjust the speed of the video, set a timer, combine clips, or even use a green screen effect, among other things. According to a YouTube spokesperson, the company wants to use the new test to find out whether it is helpful for users to start where they left off when they last closed the app.
- Threat: But the test also signals how YouTube sees TikTok and the broader switch to short videos as a potential threat to its business. Although TikTok popularized the vertical feed format in short, it has since invaded YouTube territory. For example, this summer TikTok extended the maximum video length from 60 seconds to 3 minutes. And it has been spotted testing 5-minute videos for the past few months.
- Announcement: The test comes at a time when the use of shorts has increased. During its second-quarter revenue, YouTube parent company Alphabet announced that Shorts had surpassed 15 billion daily views, up from 6.5 billion in the first quarter. However, some of this increase could be attributed to market expansion and not necessarily to increased user demand.
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