What YouTube (Google) will do in India against TIkTok
After Reels of Instagram (Facebook group), YouTube also announced that it will test a beta version of Shorts, TikTok's new rival, in India
Everyone wants to replace TikTok. YouTube today officially announced “Shorts,” a short-form video feature that resides directly in the main app.
The Google company said it will launch a beta (test) version of Shorts in India in the next few days, before expanding to other countries.
Like I nstagram con Reels , YouTube joins the fray of social networks trying to copy the popular short video app TikTok. And then maybe win its 100 million users in the United States (and 100 million in Europe).
The test will take place in India. Indeed, the New Delhi government banned TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps last June as "engaged in activities that are detrimental to India's sovereignty and integrity".
Without forgetting that the popular Chinese app also ended up at the center of the tug-of-war between Washington and Beijing for the sale of its assets in the US imposed by Trump .
YouTube notes that although Shorts is in a "beta" version it is releasing it now to receive user feedback so as to improve the feature over time.
WHAT IS YOUTUBE SHORTS
Shorts allows you to create 15 second videos directly from your smartphone, through some editing tools and above all the possibility of using a song as a soundtrack. At the moment there are 100 thousand songs available but the catalog – the company assured the Verge website – is expanding.
It is possible to merge multiple clips together, and YouTube is taking advantage of its huge library of licensed music to allow you to film with some background songs. Users will see a timer and countdown timer when shooting begins and can control the recording speed to add some creative options.
In order to get people to actually use the feature, YouTube will highlight a button to upload new videos right at the bottom of the app's navigation bar.
YouTube Shorts beta is here – a new way to watch and create short, vertical videos. Discover them on the Shorts shelf on the YouTube app homepage. Ready to create? Soon, we will start rolling out new creation tools in the YouTube app. https://t.co/20KaFSDgJf pic.twitter.com/t5JvNvQv4C
– YouTube India (@YouTubeIndia) September 14, 2020
WHY INDIA
No wonder the Shorts test starts in India. The country was TikTok's largest overseas market, with around 120 million users. Let's talk about the past as the Indian government banned the ByteDance app along with 58 other Chinese apps last June due to tensions with China on the Himalayan border.
Before the ban, roughly 30% of TikTok's 2 billion downloads were from India, according to Sensor Tower .
YouTube will also be competing with a number of local competitors who have rushed to fill the void after India's TikTok ban.
The company said the shorts will be rolled out to other markets as the product becomes more refined and new features are added.
AFTER INSTAGRAM REELS (FACEBOOK GROUP)
Not even Mark Zuckerberg wasted time. In August the Facebook founder and owner of Instagram launched Instagram's Reels feature in over 50 countries, including Italy, which allows you to create short 15-second videos with audio, effects and creative tools, just like you can with the chinese app.
Reels is essentially Facebook's answer to TikTok, just as Instagram Stories were a pretty blatant copy of Snapchat's 24-hour disappearing stories.
AND TRILLER
But there are not only the big names in the race to unseat TikTok. Born in 2015, two years before TikTok, the made in USA app Triller also allows users to create music videos (and more) and share them within the platform. At the moment, the application has gained approximately 65 million users. As Giusy Caretto wrote on Start. "The numbers are low when you think of TikTok's 800 million users, but Triller, as announced on August 2, is already a favorite in 50 countries, including the US, UK, France, Australia, Brazil and Germany."
THE MORE MARCH OF YOUTUBE
Going back to Google's video sharing platform, it might have a few tricks up its sleeve. As The Verge pointed out, “One factor that the YouTube ad post tries to highlight to creators is the opportunity YouTube offers. The site has more than 2 billion monthly users, noting that it wants to allow the next generation of mobile creators to grow a YouTube community with Shorts as well.
THE IRON ARM BETWEEN BEIJING AND WASHINGTON ON TIKTOK
The latest release of YouTube's product comes when US tech firm Oracle confirmed that TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, had formally proposed to become a "trusted technology partner" in the US.
ByteDance on Sunday discarded Microsoft's purchase offer and chooses an agreement with Oracle as a 'technology partner' for TikTok's US operations. The agreement presented to the Treasury Department is not a full-fledged sale, as required by the American authorities, but it could still satisfy Donald Trump's White House , which has imposed a deadline of 20 September for the sale or ban. of the popular app.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/cosa-fara-youtube-google-in-india-contro-tiktok/ on Tue, 15 Sep 2020 09:57:30 +0000.