When it comes to bite-sized videos, none have managed to grab the world's attention quite like TikTok. Sure, Vine had a brief moment in the sun, but it wasn't able to stick around and gain a massive user base as TikTok did.
If there's one company that could take a bite out of TikTok's market share, it's Google-owned YouTube. There's no website bigger than YouTube for long-form video, and it only makes sense that the company could capture a huge amount of users with a short video service, too.
Google unofficially launched the beta of YouTube Shorts back on March 1 in the US, and now the company has officially released it to the masses. Before long, we'll see if YouTube can dominate the short video space in the same way it has for longer videos.
YouTube Shorts Is Available Now in the US
While the Shorts Beta has been available to select users for a couple of weeks, today's news from the YouTube Blog makes the new short video service available for everyone.
That's a big deal because a service like this lives and dies based on users actually creating compelling content that people will actually want to watch. Having a wider pool of potential users means more content will be available, making YouTube Shorts a more viable TikTok alternative.
According to YouTube, the Shorts player has now surpassed 6.5 billion daily views globally, which is a pretty crazy number when you consider that it was only officially available in India, with only select users having access in other countries.
Outside of officially rolling the beta out to US users, Google also says that it plans to "introduce more features as we continue to build Shorts alongside creators and artists." For example, Google is adding the ability to add text to different parts of a video, which is critical for this sort of content.
YouTube Shorts will also receive the ability to sample audio from other Shorts that can be used in your own videos (a prevalent feature of TikTok). Additionally, Google is planning to add the ability to use sounds from non-Short videos on YouTube, which could give it a leg up on TikTok, as there are so many videos on YouTube to choose from.
Google also talked about deals it has worked out with record labels:
We’ve also worked alongside our music partners to make sure artists and creators have a large library of songs to use in their Shorts. As we launch our beta in the US, we’ll have millions of songs (and growing), music catalogs from over 250 labels and publishers, including Universal Music Group’s labels and publishing companies, Sony Music Entertainment and Publishing, Warner Music Group and Warner Chappell Music, Believe, Merlin, 300 Entertainment, Kobalt, Beggars, CD Baby, Empire, Peer, Reservoir, OneRPM and more. As we expand Shorts, the library and number of partners will continue to grow.
Shorts Is Coming...
While it's not TikTok yet, YouTube Shorts is looking to take sit on the short video throne. As it adds more features that bring it to TikTok's level, it's just a matter of getting more creators to join the party. Once they do, it's easy to envision a world where YouTube Shorts is the go-to short video platform. Only time will tell.