YouTube begins global roll-out of TikTok clone Shorts
After borrowing from Instagram Stories, YouTube has its eyes on TikTok with YouTube Shorts. The video sharing platform is rolling out its short video format globally after more than a year of development and testing. Last week, Google had announced that the feature was being released to US creators, but now users across the world are receiving the update.
The feature is being rolled out in a phased manner. It should show up as a new Shorts icon on the bottom bar of the app. Positioned next to the Home icon, the Shorts feature has displaced the Explore icon to a button at the top of the homepage. There's no dearth of short video content, with YouTube roping in users during the beta.
During initial testing, YouTube had limited Shorts to 15 seconds. However, the recent roll-out has the limit extended to match the 60-second length of TikTok videos. YouTube also flexes its AI and ML muscle by offering automatic captions while also giving creators nifty effects and filters to spice up their videos. The captions seem like an accessibility feature since Shorts lack a mute button.
During the course of the last week, YouTube users across the globe have been witnessing TikTok-like short videos in their feeds. This isn't surprising since it announced a $100 million fund on Tuesday to incentivize users to create more content for Shorts. The company plans to disburse the massive fund among YouTube Shorts content creators between now and until the end of 2022.
YouTube's efforts to popularize Shorts was already paying rich dividends since its public appearance last year, with its TikTok competitor recording 3.5 billion daily views at the end of 2020. These figures swelled to 6.5 billion within the first quarter of 2021, which stands testament to YouTube's push to create a genuine alternative to TikTok.
