TikTok Wants To Embrace More Than Short-Form Content With Hour-Long Videos
When TikTok came onto the scene back in 2017, the videos you could upload could only be a maximum of 15 seconds long. If you remember the days of Vine, the very first short-form video app, you’ll know that it really isn’t hard to fit interesting or funny content into such a small amount of time (Vine only allowd a maximum of six seconds!).
However, it is now evident that TikTok is courting the concept of videos that are as long as 60 minutes. At the moment, the feature is being tested with a limited number of users in certain regions, and there’s no idea when TikTok might make this a more widely accesible feature or whether that will even happen in the first place.
However, it is pretty clear why TikTok has this aim in the first place, if you ask me, and it’s because the platform is doing its best to find itself in a spot where it’ll be able to compete with YouTube. Over the years, the company has slowly been increasing the maximum video limit on its platform. At launch, videos started at 15 seconds and after about a year, this went up to a minute, where it stayed for quite some time. A few years later, TikTok increased this to 3 minutes, and then 10 minutes, and then 30 minutes for certain creators.
However, 60-minute videos on TikTok seem entirely unnecessary to me, and quite antithetical to what the platform is all about. The short videos were the whole reason people love the platform as much as they do, and while 3-minute videos might not do enough to turn people away, 60 minutes seems rather extreme. Either way though, the company is still testing things out and if the numbers don’t indicate enough interest, the change is bound to be rolled back.
Is YouTube Even A Giant That Can Be Slayed?
YouTube has been the household name for video hosting services since the dawn of time, so the notion of competing with it is quite a lofty one. There have been competitors before, platforms like Vimeo and DailyMotion, and while they still exist, most people simply just find themselves using YouTube.
However, the tech industry is one that can’t always be predicted. Things like Nokia, Symbian, and MySpace seemed indestructible once upon a time, but are pretty much nowhere to be seen on the grand scheme of things any longer. TikTok was already a surprise performer, so you never know.
