- TikTok announced that it’s experimenting with hour-long videos.
- Only a handful of users have access to this feature right now, and there’s no official public release date for it.
- If/when this feature is released worldwide, it will put TikTok in direct competition with YouTube.
In a bid to outperform its competitors, TikTok on Thursday (May 16) confirmed that it’s testing the ability for users to upload 60-minute videos.
However, this feature is only available to a selected group of users as of now—and the company doesn’t have any immediate plans to launch it publicly.
The feature was first noticed by social media consultant Matt Navarra, who posted a screenshot from the TikTok app on Threads. See for yourself:
Why Is TikTok Experimenting with Longer Video Formats?
TikTok says that it’s trying to give creators more opportunities to experiment with their content. It wants them to tell better stories in a single shot instead of having to ask users to “wait for the second part.” However, that’s just TikTok trying to be politically correct.
The real reason behind the new hour-long videos is watchtime. After all, the longer TikTok can get its users to stay on the platform, the more it will make from advertisers. It’s that simple!
It’s also worth noting that longer videos are often used as a promotional tactic by web and TV series, which means TikTok will be getting a new revenue stream.
For example, Peacock released a series last year called ‘Killing It.” The first episode of the show was to be posted on TikTok for promotional purposes. However, since the app doesn’t support long-format videos, it had to be broken down into five parts.
It’d be a fair assumption that the number of users who watched the first part versus the fifth part was a big difference, especially because TikTok has forever appealed to users with low attention spans who are looking for a quick laugh off a short 30-second clip.
Although TikTok users’ tendency to keep scrolling (or TikTok’s addictiveness, if I were to be blunt) is exactly what has driven much of the company’s success, it’s a major problem for it when it comes to competing with the likes of YouTube, which is easily the most-watched streaming platform in the US, if not the whole world.
As you know, all movie trailers, interviews leading up to the movies, podcasts, comedy sketches, as well as the behind-the-scenes go on YouTube (or even Instagram), but not TikTok. This is what the company wants to change.
More TikTok news: TikTok’s photo-sharing app ‘TikTok Notes‘ is all set to compete with Instagram
The Slow Progression of TikTok Videos over the Years
TikTok rose to fame with short 15-second videos—that was its unique selling point. However, over the years, the company has been slowly but surely experimenting with longer video durations to compete with platforms like YouTube and Twitch.
First, TikTok increased the duration to one minute (and now your video has to be at least 1-minute-long to qualify for monetization), then it increased the duration to 10 minutes. This was followed by an update that lets you upload 30-minute videos.
In addition to video duration, TikTok has also been experimenting with a handful of interesting features to enhance the user experience. For instance, you can now fast-forward TikTok videos by pressing down on the right side of the screen.
Plus, earlier this year, some TikTok users were also notified that their content would be given more reach if they started sharing horizontal videos.
The Bottom Line
To conclude, TikTok has been constantly trying to improve user experience, and its latest move to allow users to upload 60-minute videos puts it in direct competition with YouTube.
However, it’s worth noting that YouTube will continue dominating the space—because it’ll still be the go-to choice for videos longer than an hour, such as movies, lengthy podcasts, etc.
Also, don’t forget that YouTube, too, has something very TikTok-like—YouTube Shorts. Plus, TikTok is only testing the feature as of now; we don’t have a release date yet. Will it be effective if/when it’s finally made available? Stay tuned to find out.
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