LOS ANGELES: TikTok appears to be incentivizing creators to start sharing horizontal videos that are more than a minute long.
The platform promises to enhance the visibility of these videos within 72 hours of posting, with creators who’ve been active on TikTok for over three months qualifying for this boost, provided their videos aren’t advertisements or political. The Verge reached out to TikTok for further details but hasn’t received an immediate response.
Given that most TikTok users consume content on their mobile phones, the vertical video format has been traditionally favoured. However, promoting horizontal videos necessitates viewers to adjust their viewing orientation, akin to the format commonly found on YouTube.
This trend of TikTok resembling YouTube has been evolving for some time. The platform has been experimenting with longer video formats, such as 30-minute videos, following the extension of video lengths to 15 minutes a few months ago. While YouTube content typically spans 10 minutes or more, driven by monetization strategies like vlogs documenting “a week in the life,” TikTok is renowned for its shorter, bite-sized content.
This isn’t the first instance of TikTok urging its creators to produce content resembling that of YouTube. The introduction of the Series paywall program enables users to curate collections of videos, each up to 20 minutes long, for subscribers willing to pay. Creators can set prices ranging from $1 to $190 for their series.
The shift towards horizontal videos and the growing inclination towards longer content may lead creators to repurpose material from YouTube. While YouTube, particularly YouTube Shorts, generally offers better compensation to creators, cross-platform content sharing is already commonplace.
YouTube has been incorporating features to emulate the TikTok experience, signalling a convergence between the two platforms.
