Google to take on TikTok with YouTube ‘Shorts’, report says

Google's YouTube will reportedly launch 'Shorts' as a rival to TikTok. The launch will happen towards the end of 2020.

YouTube, TikTiok, YouTube Shorts, Shorts is YouTube's answer to TikTok, TikTok app, TikTok short form videos

The exponential rise of TikTok in the US and India has threatened companies like Google and Facebook.

YouTube, which is owned by Google, is reportedly working on a TikTok rival called ‘Shorts’. According to The Information, Shorts will allow users to create upload and share short-form videos, a concept that made TikTok a household name. YouTube is looking to roll out the feature sometime towards the end of 2020.

Shorts will not be a separate app. Instead, Shorts will reside within the YouTube app. The Shorts feature will reportedly take advantage of all the licensed music owned by Google. Those songs can be used within the videos, the report claimed. Separately, MSNBC’s Dylan Byers has corroborated the report saying that YouTube is developing a short-form video feature called Shorts that will rival TikTok.

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It isn’t surprising to see that YouTube is interested to introduce its own TikTok rival in the form of the ‘Shorts’ feature. The exponential rise of TikTok in the US and India has threatened companies like Google and Facebook. In fact, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sees TikTok as a threat.

TikTok, which is the most popular social media platform, is known for creating, sharing and viewing short-form videos that are typically last between 15 and 60 seconds. The app, which has become a pop-cultural phenomenon, is a hit among teenagers and kids. TikTok has over 1.5 billion downloads worldwide with India contributing a quarter of them.

TikTok most downloaded app in February in India

But despite the app’s popularity, TikTok has been criticised for censorship, privacy, and child safety. Given TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, lawmakers have raised concerns about the app’s growing influence in the US.

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