TikTok’s impact on the content creation landscape cannot be overstated.
Just four years after being launched in China in 2016, TikTok has become the most visited site in the world. The app has also spawned a cottage industry of content creators who have used TikTok’s features to turn short-form video into both works of art and revenue generation machines.
It didn’t take long for brands to take notice. Businesses quickly began to launch their own TikTok accounts shortly after the site caught fire. TikTok, in turn, monetized their interest through advertising. As noted in RetailWire,
TikTok’s US net ad revenues will rise by 184.4% to $5.96 billion in 2022, By 2024, TikTok’s US ad business will be larger than YouTube’s. To put this into perspective, it will take TikTok just five years to accomplish what YouTube did in 16.
YouTube and its owner Alphabet are not happy as TikTok eats away at YouTube’s dominance. So, they’ve done something about it: created their own version of TikTok, YouTube Shorts.
Shorts, launched in 2020 in India, makes it possible for people and brands to express themselves ideally in 15 seconds or less (although users can make Shorts for up to 60 seconds in duration).
YouTube’s Shorts creation tools makes it possible to create short-form videos that are up to 60 seconds long with our multi-segment camera. The Shorts themselves pretty much look like TikTok videos by design, resplendent with special effects and music if a user chooses. And YouTube has periodically rolled out new tools to help creators make better Shorts. Shorts also launched a $100 million fund to help creators.
Source: YouTube
According to YouTube, more than 1.5 billion people use Shorts. This number actually surpasses TikTok’s user base. Why? One reason is that Shorts is a feature of an app –YouTube -- that has existed for years, giving content creators a built-in audience. And, of course, YouTube is no slouch. It’s the most popular search engine in the world next to Google. It remains one of the most visited sites in the world. It’s still more popular among the coveted Gen Z population than TikTok is.
For the most part, brands are relying on organic content to build awareness and sometimes to drive sales. Shorts does not have a full-fledged advertising program yet -- although that’s changing soon. Brands have been capitalizing on Shorts in a number of ways, according to The Wall Street Journal. For example:
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