YouTube has announced its TikTok inspired feature called “Shorts” will soon be available in the U.S. The company stated many people often feel overwhelmed using YouTube, so they’ve created Shorts as a fun, easy way for users to create content with just the use of their phone.
YouTube Shorts was launched in India back in September, most likely due to the fact TikTok had been banned in the country. Since the launch in India, Shorts has seen a lot of growth. YouTube stated the number of Indian Channels using the tool have more than tripled, and the YouTube Shorts Player is receiving over 3.5 billion daily views globally.
Although users in any part of the world have the ability to upload YouTube shorts right now, India has access to more options within the Shorts tool, which will soon be available in the U.S. in the coming weeks.
This week in India we’re launching an early beta of YouTube Shorts, a new way to discover, watch and create short, vertical videos on the YouTube app.
Even if you don’t live in India, you can still upload your short videos today. Learn more → https://t.co/6VySxIwMB9 pic.twitter.com/M0jXHoJkki
— YouTube Creators (@YouTubeCreators) September 14, 2020
As you can see, the feature is very similar to TikTok as YouTube most likely wanted to duplicate the platform’s success and create a similar version to fill in the gap when the TikTok app was banned from India. And with plans for Shorts to come to the U.S., this is something you definitely want to follow and think about incorporating into your content strategy.
Source: Hutchinson, Andrew. “YouTube Says That its TikTok-Like ‘Shorts’ Feature will be Expanded to US Users Next Month.” SocialMediaToday, 17 February 2021, www.socialmediatoday.com/news/youtube-says-that-its-tiktok-like-shorts-feature-will-be-expanded-to-us-u/.