TikTok vs. YouTube Shorts

TikTok or YouTube shorts?

Well in short (get it), YouTube Shorts is basically a less intense TikTok. With the rise of TikTok in the past 4-5 years, many other social media and video-making platforms have tried this same style of content. Almost every social media has at least attempted adding these vertical, short-form, addicting form of videos for people to scroll through. Even Twitter has implemented a “for you page” onto their platform, along with adding a way to scroll through videos just like TikTok. Nevertheless, some of these variants of TikTok have worked, the three most commonly used ones include TikTok, Instagram Reels, and now, YouTube shorts.

You may think this is another attempt for a media to steal TikTok’s form of content, which is exactly right. The only difference is, YouTube supposedly knows what they’re doing. Starting February 1^st, 2023, YouTube is officially adding a funds system for their creators among the Shorts side. “The YouTube Shorts Fund is a $100M fund to reward creators for their dedication to making creative, original Shorts that delight the YouTube community. We’ll reach out to thousands of creators each month to tell them that they qualify for a Shorts bonus from the fund”, said YouTube themselves in their official article announcing the release of the funds system.

This may or may not become an issue for TikTok on their professional outcome. YouTube is purposefully putting these changes out to reward and support their creators. Meanwhile TikTok, having immense community, has relatively extreme requirements for their funding system. According to their guidelines:

• Your TikTok account must have at least 10,000 followers.
• You must have at least 100,000 views on your videos within the last 30 days.
• Your account must be in good standing, adhering to the platform’s community guidelines and best practices.
• Content published to your account must be original (not cross-posted or otherwise repurposed).
• And to top it all off, you must be at least 18 years old to apply for the funds.

This eventually could be an issue for TikTok, not necessarily in numbers as TikTok is still exponentially greater in size. However, YouTube is the only platform larger than TikTok based off numbers, so if anyone’s going to pass them, it’ll be them. As of 2022, YouTube has roughly 70% more active users than TikTok. YouTube has been the foundation of content creation, video-making, and entertainment for decades. Not to mention their funds system being implemented soon has no extra requirements on creators, and anyone of legal age to be on the platform, can generate revenue off it.

Long story short, the decline of TikTok along with YouTube’s new additions could potentially lead to the rise of YouTube Shorts when up against TikTok and its army of teenagers.