Long-Form TikTok: YouTube Challenger or Identity Crisis?
Written by Ana Balashova for Kill the DJ
In 2023, YouTube was the most widely used online platform measured in Pew Research’s survey. Roughly eight-in-ten U.S. adults (83%) reported ever using the platform. Meanwhile, TikTok usage stood at 33% of U.S. adults, up 12% from 2021. Pretty impressive, considering all the attempts to shut it down and regulatory scrutiny. But what’s different on YouTube that TikTok doesn’t have? Longer videos.
The app allowed users to upload 15-second videos at launch, but TikTok has been increasing that limit over the past few years. First, it was a minute. Then three. Then ten. Fifteen. Thirty. An hour… While the company rose to popularity for its short-form video format, it’s slowly been embracing long-form content to take on one of its biggest competitors.
But longer videos mean more than just competing with YouTube. It’s a shot at streaming giants too. TikTok’s already full of show snippets. Give users full episodes, and Netflix might start sweating. The question is: will users and creators be onboard with this?
The Platform Tug-of-War: A History of “Inspired” Features
TikTok and YouTube have been playing copycat for years.
Back in 2022 YouTube, feeling the pressure from TikTok’s popularity, launched “Shorts” as a direct response to TikTok’s growing influence. YouTube even began offering financial incentives to short-form creators, a clear attempt to lure talent from its competitor.
Now, in 2024, TikTok’s playing the “long” game. They’re pushing creators to make longer, horizontal videos to get paid more.
But YouTube’s not backing down. In 2024 they launched “Collab” for Shorts. It’s like TikTok’s duets, but with a YouTube flavor. And now they announcedadding music video remixing to Shorts right when UMG went silent on TikTok.
So, who’s winning this digital tug-of-war? In 2024, TikTok users are expected to spend 55 minutes per day on the app. That’s 5 minutes more than YouTube. But in this game, tomorrow’s another day. And another feature to copy.
But all this back-and-forth is giving creators a whiplash. According to Isla Moon, a travel influencer, it’s becoming increasingly challenging for creators to keep up with ever-changing social media platforms: “Creators are left scrambling to figure out each platform’s algorithms, which seem to change every few months. It also seems that each platform wants a piece of every pie. It used to be one platform per type of content. For example, Instagram was for photos, YouTube for long-form videos, and TikTok for short-form videos. But today, creators must post all styles of content across almost all social media apps. On the one hand, this is great, as it allows us to reach a bigger audience on each platform, but it does come with downsides.”
Viewing Experience Puzzle
TikTok built its empire on short attention spans. Fifteen seconds of dopamine-fueled scrolling. Rinse. Repeat. Now, they want us to sit still for 60 minutes? Good luck with that.
And it’s not just about attention spans. It’s about the whole viewing experience. TikTok’s built for vertical viewing. You know, like how normal people hold their phones. And while there were promoting horizontal uploads it’s not that simple. Isla Moon explains the headache: “I spend a lot of time creating long-form YouTube content, which is already hard to repurpose on TikTok due to conversion issues when it comes to switching landscape video to portrait. This makes creating content for all platforms very hard, as the formats required are different. This will be the same case for the 60-minute long-form TikTok content. TikTok does allow you to publish landscape videos now, but they have to be viewed by flipping your phone around. In my experience in testing this feature, I tend to get far fewer views on landscape videos than on portrait ones.”
