February 24, 2022

The rivalry between TikTok and YouTube has grown ever closer….

Part of the TikTok platform’s success is the focus on short-form video. How long can a TikTok be in 2022? TikTok has now expanded its video length to 10 minutes meaning the User Generated Content Platform has become very similar to YouTube.

TikTok’s culture thus far has been to release multi-part videos, encouraging follows from viewers. It’s a great way to get engagement from viewers, but it leads to a frustrating experience for videos in a long serial format. By increasing the max length of TikTok videos – the viewer experience becomes better.

YouTube is still comfortably the world’s largest video streaming platform, with more than 2 billion logged-in users playing music on its service every month.

Yet TikTok revealed in September that it already has over 1 billion global Monthly Active Users (MAUs) – and App Annie predicts that number will top 1.5 billion in 2022.

“TODAY, WE’RE EXCITED TO START ROLLING OUT THE ABILITY TO UPLOAD VIDEOS THAT ARE UP TO 10 MINUTES, WHICH WE HOPE WOULD UNLEASH EVEN MORE CREATIVE POSSIBILITIES FOR OUR CREATORS AROUND THE WORLD.”

SPOKESPERSON, TIKTOK

TikTok and YouTube aren’t just competing for users and creators, they’re also competing for advertising revenue.

YouTube generated USD $8.63 billion in advertising revenues in Q4 2021 (ended December) and over $28 billion across the course of 2021.

TikTok, meanwhile, generated USD $4 billion in ad revenues last year, but aims to triple that figure to $12 billion in 2022, according to China based news outlet LatePost.

YouTube has introduced its TikTok clone called YouTube Shorts to its community in an attempt to stave off creators from leaving the platform. But the platform’s combination of filters, special effects, music catalog, and massive popularity keeps it in focus for the younger generations.

TikTok has been keen to tell the music industry about the success of artists using its platform, reporting in December 2020, that over 70 artists that broke on TikTok in 2020 signed major label deals.

TikTok revealed in December 2021 that approximately 430 songs surpassed 1 billion video views as TikTok ‘sounds’ last year, three times more than in 2020, when over 175 songs reached the billion view mark.

Could TikTok’s longer video capability help boost its users, creators and advertising revenue to challenge video giant YouTube’s market dominance? Stay tuned.