Watch out, YouTube: TikTok is expanding the maximum length of its videos to 10 minutes.
The news follows the ByteDance-owned app’s announcement last summer that it was rolling out the option for its users to create videos of up to three minutes in length – an increase from the previous per-video maximum of 60 seconds.
Today’s (February 28) news, first reported by TechCrunch and confirmed by MBW, marks an even closer rivalry between TikTok and YouTube.
YouTube is still comfortably the world’s largest video streaming platform, with more than 2 billion logged-in users playing music on its service every month.
Yet TikTok revealed in September that it already has over 1 billion global Monthly Active Users (MAUs) – and App Annie predicts that number will top 1.5 billion in 2022.
As noted by TC, the expansion of TikTok’s maximum video length to 10 minutes makes the app look much more like a serious direct competitor to YouTube.
The rivalry has been going both ways for a number of months, however.
In September 2020, YouTube launched its TikTok rival Shorts platform in India. That was followed by Shorts’ launch in the US, and an expansion into Latin America, Canada and the UK.
YouTube has managed to woo superstar artists to its Shorts platform, bagging the exclusive preview of 14 tracks from Ed Sheeran’s = (Equals) album in October.
Sheeran previewed the tracks with accompanying Shorts videos for each one ahead of its official release this Friday, (October 29) via Asylum/Atlantic.
Shorts videos can still only be a maximum of 60 seconds long.
TikTok and YouTube aren’t just competing for users and creators, they’re also competing for advertising revenue.
YouTube generated USD $8.63 billion in advertising revenues in Q4 2021 (ended December) and over $28 billion across the course of 2021.
TikTok, meanwhile, generated USD $4 billion in ad revenues last year, but aims to triple that figure to $12 billion in 2022, according to China based news outlet LatePost.
Could TikTok’s longer video capability help boost its users, creators and advertising revenue to challenge video giant YouTube’s market dominance? Stay tuned.
In a statement provided to MBW regarding the increase to 10 minute videos, a TikTok spokesperson said: “We’re always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience.”
“Today, we’re excited to start rolling out the ability to upload videos that are up to 10 minutes, which we hope would unleash even more creative possibilities for our creators around the world.”
Spokesperson, TikTok
The TikTok spokesperson added: “Last year, we introduced longer videos, giving our community more time to create and be entertained on TikTok.
“Today, we’re excited to start rolling out the ability to upload videos that are up to 10 minutes, which we hope would unleash even more creative possibilities for our creators around the world.”
Elsewhere, TikTok has been keen to tell the music industry about the success of artists using its platform, reporting in December 2020, that over 70 artists that broke on TikTok in 2020 signed major label deals.
TikTok revealed in December 2021 that approximately 430 songs surpassed 1 billion video views as TikTok ‘sounds’ last year, three times more than in 2020, when over 175 songs reached the billion view mark.
TikTok notes that these view counts don’t “exist in a vacuum, but directly translate to commercial success for trending songs and artists”, with over 175 songs that trended on the platform in 2021 charting on the Billboard Hot 100, twice the number that charted in 2020 according to TikTok.
YouTube Shorts launched a $100 million Shorts Fund in May last year to pay “thousands of creators” for their content on the platform.
The launch of the fund followed TikTok’s own $200 million Creator Fund in the United States in July 2020.Music Business Worldwide
