Summary
- YouTube is a viable alternative to TikTok due to its massive user base and user-friendly platform.
- YouTube offers a wider age demographic compared to TikTok, making it an ideal pivot platform for all users.
- Both YouTube and TikTok are video-first platforms, but YouTube allows for original audio in videos, benefitting creators and users.
Before the time is through, it’s time to savor TikTok. The wildly popular social media app is set to be banned in the U.S. on January 19 unless ByteDance, the parent company, agrees to sell it. The U.S. courts have worries about the Chinese company harvesting too much data from users and have threatened to ban the app for years. The decision has been passed from court to court and it all looks like the app will indeed be banned in just a few days.
The nearly 170 million users in the U.S. will need to find another app that can provide them with short form video content. There are some options available, as Instagram and its Reels feature can be short form video content and Facebook offers a video feature on its platform. But TikTok’s interface and platform, while similar to Reels and Videos, offers more in terms of shareability and ease of uploading for a content creator. It was also an app geared more towards millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha.
What creators may start to do is look at another one of the most used social media apps in the world to see if that would be a smart place to pivot to. That would be YouTube. YouTube offers YouTube Shorts, a short video format within an easy-to-use app. YouTube is both user-friendly and creator-friendly, as it is simple to upload a video. Here is why YouTube Shorts might take the place of TikTok.
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YouTube
YouTube is a streaming platform that offers both short form and long form videos. It also offers YouTube TV as a streaming service and YouTube Shorts for an added feature.
It has a massive user base
It is used globally by so many
YouTube / Pocket-lint
For content creators wanting to look for a different user base for both sharing their content wider as well as opening up more ecommerce opportunities, YouTube is good in that regard. There are over 2.5 billion people that use it globally each month. Over 8.4 billion videos are watched on YouTube each day, according to TechJury. That is more people potentially be watching their videos and a much wider user base than evem TikTok offered.
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While most people may think that YouTube is mostly watched on phones, just shy of 41% of minutes streamed on YouTube is on a mobile device. That means that if TikTok’s users shift to using YouTube Shorts to watch their short form content, that number will grow. But, it also means more people will be able to access it as over 70% of TikTok use is on mobile. People think to go on YouTube on their computers while they don’t really think to do it for TikTok.
It can also help grow an e-commerce brand with more eyes on it. For consumers, most people will search YouTube if they want to look up a video clip from just about anything. If you’re also able to get your fill of short form video content and search for the kinds of content you want on YouTube Shorts, it will bring more people that way.
There is no age disparity on YouTube
People of all ages use it
Facebook’s age demographic tends to trend older. X’s age demographic tends to be middle-aged, as people use it for either news or sharing their own personal takes. TikTok was geared towards younger generations, more than even Snapchat was when it initially came around.
There are over 2.5 billion people that use it globally each month. Over 8.4 billion videos are watched on YouTube each day.
YouTube does not have an age that overwhelmingly makes up a larger part of its audience. According to Statista, the highest percentage of users of YouTube is those 25-34, and they make up 21.5% of all YouTube users. Those that are between the ages of 18-24 make up 15.7% of users on YouTube. The 35-44 age range is the second-highest percentage with 17.9%. So there is no real dominant age for YouTube users. This gives TikTok users of all ages an easy platform to pivot to.
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YouTube is a video-first platform, just like TikTok
They have a baked-in advantage
When you want to watch a video of a cat playing the piano or of a Saturday Night Live skit from the night before, you likely are going to go to one of two places: YouTube or TikTok. They are both video-first platforms and offer video content at a much higher percentage than other platforms. In fact, it is the only kind of content that they offer. If you’re on X, Facebook, or Instagram, you’re going to be looking at pictures and posts of people’s kids, messages wishing other people happy birthday, or tweets that express opinions.
That is not what TikTok and YouTube do. You won’t see a post with just text on it. You won’t see a post with just photos on it. These platforms are meant to support videos first. They are also different from Snapchat in that Snapchat only lets you post up to 60-second long videos. But Snapchat is usually meant for quick bursts of video without much narrative focus. If a user wants to watch short-form video content that features more of a narrative, YouTube and TikTok are the places they would go.
While there is no way to post to a story like there is on Snapchat, YouTube and TikTok let you follow accounts in order to stay up to date with the posts.
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It allows for original audio in videos
This is great for both creators and users
Christian Wiediger / Unsplash / Pocket-lint
When you think of TikTok, you may think of crazy dances and people showing you how they put on their makeup. Posting their outfits of the day and offering home renovation tips are subcategories of TikTok that let people connect to one another. This also means that people can watch and post their own audios, as well as use music on their posts. YouTube Shorts allows for both of those aspects as well.
YouTube Shorts is easy to upload to and lets creators and streamers alike get the most out of their videos. This means that users can enjoy original audio as they’re consuming the videos. If you want to ensure that you’re staying up to date on all that your favorite content creators are offering, you need to check out their profiles in TikTok. If they are already on YouTube, you can follow their account or look up their username to make sure you stay up to date on all they are putting out. That includes their own original videos and audio.
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