Sources: YouTube is planning to release Shorts, a rival to TikTok inside YouTube's main app, by the end of the year
YouTube is planning to release a rival to TikTok, the hugely popular video-sharing app, by the end of the year, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The Information
Context & Ripple Effects
The Information's sourcing put YouTube on record trajectory toward shipping Shorts inside its main app by year-end — a bet that short-form video belongs in an app people already open daily rather than a separate destination. What came after validates the plan's sequencing: the India test run hit 3.5B daily views before any Western launch, giving YouTube proof of demand in TikTok's largest market first.
From there the rollout compounded quickly — a US beta that critics called half-baked at launch, then full US creator access, then licensed soundtracks from 250 labels as it reached the UK, Canada, and Latin America, and finally availability in over 100 countries within roughly a year of this report.
First-order effects
TikTok gains a competitor embedded in YouTube's main app, where creators can reach YouTube's existing audience without building a following on a new platform.
YouTube creators get a native short-form format, removing the need to cross-post to TikTok to participate in vertical video.
Second-order effects
Music rights holders gain a second major licensing outlet for short-form soundtracks, as the later international rollout showed with 250 licensed labels attached to Shorts.
TikTok's US position comes under pressure from two directions at once — YouTube's scale and the platform's own mounting scrutiny over recommendation bias and withheld safety features.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, short-form video consolidates into incumbent platforms as a feature rather than surviving as standalone apps, with distribution scale deciding winners over product novelty.
Regulatory attention already trained on TikTok's For You feed — including documented far-right skew ahead of German elections — is likely to extend to whatever algorithmic short-form feed wins the audience, making feed governance a structural requirement, not a differentiator.
The trend: Major platforms are absorbing short-form video into their existing apps rather than ceding the format to standalone rivals, with YouTube's Shorts rollout from India test to 100+ countries as the clearest data point.
This is potentailly big.... And, bonus: YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki and I talked about TikTok in a podcast episode that will air later this month. We've got an item coming soon confirming this news, along with a few of her comments on YouTube & short-form video >>> https://twitt…
The problem with everyone trying to copy TikTok is that you can copy the features but you can't copy the community. We keep relearning this lesson every 3-5 years in social apps. https://techcrunch.com/...
How many times do we have to watch this play out... Big tech co realizes too late, then assumes creating look-alike functionality and shoving it into consumers hands will work. https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
*plot thickens* YouTube is developing a short-form video feature - Shorts - to counter TikTok. The feature will be included in the existing YouTube app and is expected to release by the end of the year. https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
Cloning Snapchat Stories was easy. Just copy its camera to a new graph. YouTube Stories stilled failed. But cloning TikTok requires a base of remix fodder content Fb & Insta don't have, but YouTube's upcoming clone Shorts does https://techcrunch.com/...
YouTube is reportedly working on a TikTok rival called ‘Shorts’ to release by the end of 2020. It will reportedly make use of all the music YouTube has licensed already. (via @theinformation) https://www.theinformation.com/ ...
With “Content Network Effect” each piece of content in a network makes the other content more valuable. On TikTok, each dance, song, & joke lower the bar to creating more https://techcrunch.com/... https://twitter.com/...
When Instagram's TikTok clone Reels launches in English, it will start flatfooted. That's why YouTube's version Shorts has potential...but only if Google allows remixes of its whole database of videos https://techcrunch.com/... https://twitter.com/...
All I want from the YouTube app is for it to ease up on the fucking YouTube Premium hard-sell. Jesus. It's like every time I open the app! https://twitter.com/...
.@DylanByers recently asked Susan Wojcicki about short form videos like Tiktok... she pointed to “stories” ... “That would be an example of really short-form content. So we will definitely continue to innovate in all the different format sizes, including really short-form video.”…
Big tech companies are simultaneously known for their unrivaled innovation and also straight up copying other companies and using their gigantic built-in userbase to achieve success. https://twitter.com/...