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YouTube Shorts seeks to contain TikTok growing popularity

by Felix Omondi

YouTube has consistently been the market leader when it comes to user-generated video streaming service. There is no real competition, especially when you are looking at free video streaming services that are monetizing the platform. No, Vimeo, Veoh, and DailyMotion do not even come close to the number of users YouTube enjoys.

However, that market dominance could be under threat in the long run if the company does not move in to contain a new and rapidly growing video streaming platform, TikTok. The new kid around the block that is currently driving all the teens and young adults around the world crazy.

While there is a possibility that TikTok is another passing cloud, and all YouTube needs to do is just wait it out, the growing popularity of the app is nonetheless giving the management at TikTok real jitters. How else would you explain the decision to release a TikTok-like version of YouTube by the company dubbed Shorts?

YouTube Shorts

It is quite clear that YouTube Shorts is designed for the same demographics who are currently ‘high’ on TikTok. Call it jealousy or market survival strategy; call it whatever you want, but it is clear YouTube is going after TikTok. If it could, YouTube would drop a nuke on top of TikTok, but right now, a torpedo seems just about the right force to use to sink the TikTok ship.

Shorts will have the upper hand over TikTok, given that YouTube has an extensive catalog of license music that could be embedded into the user-generated short videos as soundtracks. The extensive license agreement YouTube has already in place will make it much harder for TikTok to outcompete YouTube Shorts.

Users on Shorts will simply have more music to work with, compared to when using TikTok, and that fact might just turn the tides back in favor of YouTube. Thus effectively putting TikTok on a path to its deathbed.

Another fact to consider is the sheer number of users and influencers already on the YouTube platform. Sure, TikTok has become quite popular in recent months, but if shorts could serve to accentuate user’s visibility on YouTube, I would be more users will quickly drop it in favor of Shorts.

More Fodders for Influencers

I would bet more influencers will quickly warm up to Shorts if it will give them more views among their already existing fan base. The same cannot be said about TikTok since it is a relatively new platform, and the fan base influencers on that platform might have are not as old and as many as they might be having on YouTube.

Not forgetting that YouTube has an established monetization system that most influencers are already familiar about. They would likely focus on ramping up their paychecks than starting to work from scratch on a new monetization system with a fewer fan base compared to their YouTube following.


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