Surprise: TikTok is now on YouTube

Since 2016, the social platform TikTok has been celebrating a crazy mix of self-dramatisation, catchy tunes and visual overload - mainly in portrait format and in the shortest possible snippets. After all, TikTok content (TikToks for short) is mainly consumed on smartphones. This is set to change: As content creator and social media expert Matt Navarra confirms via threads, TikTok has tweaked its recommendation algorithm.

Specifically: From now on, longer videos that last at least one minute and were shot in landscape format will be favoured by the TikTok algorithm. At least for the first 72 hours after posting. However, this does not apply to promotional videos or videos from political parties. In addition, the channel on which such a video is posted must have existed for at least three months.

What is behind this strategy?

Longer videos are to be monetised

At first glance, TikTok's change of course seems strange. The success formula of the notorious short video app "for young people" is based on fast and entertaining videos: The shorter the video, the more often people swipe to the next video - and the more dopamine, i.e. happiness hormones, are released. In extreme cases, this can lead to addictive behaviour. For example, when a quick trip to the loo with TikTok videos takes significantly longer than originally planned.

Now TikTok seems to be shifting down a gear. The Chinese platform is now even testing 30-minute videos, just a few months after the maximum possible video length was increased to 15 minutes. The US tech magazine The Verge suspects that the new "Series" paywall programme is behind this. The programme will allow content creators to offer collections of videos up to 20 minutes in length exclusively for paying subscribers. The plan can cost from 1 to 190 dollars - TikTok collects a commission fee for this.

Or: To compete with YouTube

Another reason for the YouTube-isation of TikTok could be a simple counter to Instagram and YouTube's efforts to steal users and content creators from TikTok. In 2020, during the pandemic, Instagram introduced so-called "Reels" in the wake of TikTok's huge wave of success. YouTube followed suit a month later with short videos in portrait format under the name "Shorts". With success: both Instagram and YouTube are recording increasing numbers of hits.

Currently, it is common for content creators not to create content per platform, but to distribute each piece of content across all platforms; TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. YouTube has an advantage here: by the end of 2023, Google's video platform had 2.49 billion monthly users, twice as many as TikTok (and slightly more than Instagram). If you don't want to switch apps to watch both short videos in portrait format and long videos in landscape format, stick with YouTube.

TikTok's efforts to create more long and landscape-format videos could therefore be an attempt to win over YouTube's clientele - and to get YouTube content creators to post their long, landscape-format content on TikTok as well.