The rapid growth of TikTok has been fascinating to watch over the past couple of years, with the platform now touting well over 680 million monthly s across the globe. It's become the new destination for viral trends, discovering popular songs, and has allowed countless content creators to rise to fame.
As TikTok's growth continues, there have been plenty of competitors making attempts to steal some of its thunder. Instagram launched Reels back in August 2020, Snapchat Spotlight debuted in November, and neither of the two has caught on the same way that TikTok has. Following months of trialing YouTube Shorts —Google's official answer to TikTok — in India, the service has officially launched (in beta) for everyone in the U.S.
While companies like Instagram and Snapchat may have failed to give TikTok a serious run for its money, YouTube's 2.3 billion s. YouTube is both the largest video-hosting site and the second largest search site (second only to Google Search), meaning it generates an insurmountable amount of traffic on any given day. Even if just a fraction of those s decide to try out YouTube Shorts, that'll still generate a massive amount of activity for the feature.
YouTube’s Audience Is Its Biggest Advantage Over TikTok
Something else YouTube has going for it is how easy it's made accessing Shorts. While Google could have very easily created a standalone app for YouTube Shorts, they live in the main YouTube app alongside everything else. If someone has the YouTube app on their phone, they now have access to Shorts. Instagram and Snapchat offered Reels and Spotlight in a similar fashion, but again going back to YouTube's size, more people have and use the YouTube app compared to Instagram and Snapchat. YouTube Shorts are present right on the YouTube app home page, and if someone subscribes to a creator that makes Shorts, they also show up in the subscriptions area. It's going to become impossible to ignore YouTube Shorts as more people start using the feature, and for YouTube, that's exactly what it needs.
Then there are all of the smaller things, too. YouTube Shorts can be embedded on websites just as easily as any other YouTube video, making it possible for creators to easily share their content on just about any website/platform they want. Plus, with Twitter now testing a new feature that makes YouTube videos play directly on s' timelines, it's going to become even easier than it already is for Shorts to be shared to those outside of the YouTube app.
While none of this is to say that YouTube is guaranteed to dethrone TikTok with the launch of Shorts, it's certainly in the best possible position out of anything else that's come before it. Everyone knows YouTube, everyone uses YouTube, and that lends YouTube Shorts an amount of potential not previously seen by the likes of Instagram Reels or Snapchat Spotlight. If YouTube is able to play its cards right, listen to , and properly market/ Shorts, it could be on to something special.
Source: YouTube