Highlights:
- YouTube rolling out “Shorts” for Indian users
- YouTube Short will be its own version of the now-banned app TikTok
- Facebook has already rolled out a similar feature on Instagram called Reels
Alphabet Inc-owned YouTube is now rolling out its own version of social media rival TikTok, a short video format service which is called Shorts. This format Shorts will be enabled within its video-sharing platform.
YouTube will first test this feature, Shorts, in India over the next few days before it expands it to more countries in the months to come, the company said in a blog post on Monday.
The company wrote, “Over the next few days in India, we’re launching an early beta of Shorts with a handful of new creative tools to test this out. This is an early version of the product, but we’re releasing it now to bring you – our global community of users, creators, and artists — on our journey with us as we build and improve Shorts,” in the blog post.
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The latest addition to YouTube, which will be competing against Facebook’s latest addition to Instagram called Reels and also TikTok in other countries, will enable the users to record short mobile-friendly vertical videos and then add special effects and soundtracks from the music library.
The announcement also comes as US-based tech giant Oracle Corp and China’s ByteDance come to an agreement to keep TikTok operating in the United States of America, beating Microsoft in the deal which was structured as a partnership rather than a complete takeover.
YouTube’s entry in the short-video service space coincides with the ban of Chinese application TikTok in one of its biggest market, India, following the country’s rise in tension with its neighbor China at the border.
