Why Short Video Will Survive Despite TikTok Ban in US
Tips on how marketers can leverage short video.
TikTok’s ban has been a talking point in the US, which has raised many questions about the future of short videos. Max Kraynov, CEO, FunCorp, highlights why short-form video entertainment content is not going anywhere, even if the platform is gone.
TikTok’s popularity, notoriety, and knack for attracting headlines show no signs of slowing down. The latest furor stems from governments worldwide getting increasingly concerned about security issues with the app, given its Chinese origin.
The US, Canada, Australia, and several other countries have already banned the app from official government devices, while India went further and banned the app entirely in 2020.
With talks about a potential US-wide TikTok ban, which would block around 150m people from the platform, could we be witnessing the start of short-form video entertainment’s decline?
Not even close.
A Short History Of Short-Form Video Entertainment Apps
While TikTok is the first app that comes to mind when we talk about short-form video, its predecessor, Vine, remains gone but not forgotten, with sporadic rumors and articles regarding a potential return still appearing some six years after its discontinuation.
Acquired by Twitter in 2012 before its launch in 2013, Vine was a true pioneer, allowing users to share six-second, looping video clips. Its popularity surged to 200 million active users in 2015 before closing in 2017, largely due to its established competitors realizing the potential of short-form video. The emergence of similar features on more based platforms, such as Snapchat’s Stories, or Instagram supporting video content, allowed those platforms to grow and retain their dominance, and Vine struggled to keep up.
So, when TikTok launched in 2016 it joined a crowded market, yet despite initial skepticism from Vine fans, and apathy from social media app fragmentation, TikTok’s rise has been monumental. It now ranks as the #2 video entertainment app in terms of active users and total time spent, according to a We Are Social report, coming in behind YouTube.
Youtube has clearly paid attention to TikTok’s growth, and while the service is better known for hosting longer videos, Youtube Shorts – short vertical videos of up to 60 seconds – were introduced as an early beta in India in September 2020, before rolling out in the US six months later. From there, comparisons and competition between the platform and other social media platforms have persisted to the present day, with the latest round being a three-way battle for short-form video monetization dominance between Instagram reels, YouTube Shorts, and TikTok.
See More: The New Age of TV Media Buying Is Audience-First
Classification, Metrics, And Ban Ramifications
How TikTok is classified significantly affects how it ranks among competitors.
As previously mentioned, it ranks #2 among video entertainment apps, according to our Changing World of Digital report from January 2023:
Source: We Are Social
However, it drops down to sixth place for most used social platforms. The kicker? The top five all now feature or support short-form video content.
Source: We Are Social
If the US TikTok ban were to pass, despite the initial outcry, the appetite for short-form wouldn’t disappear overnight – users would simply migrate to other platforms – although which platform will scoop that US audience share remains to be seen. TikTok fans already use these different platforms, with only 0.1% of users being unique.
Source: We are Social
In addition, despite an assumed air of social media fatigue, there is still massive room for growth in both the video entertainment and social media markets, factoring in a continual rise in the global population and a surge in smartphone and internet access and usage in developing regions. The number of social media users and their daily time on these platforms continue to grow yearly.
Source: We are social
Source: We are social
That being said, TikTok still dominates when it comes to time spent on social media apps, with users spending almost a day per month using the app. This, combined with a reported current potential ad reach of 1.05bn, according to data published by WARC Media, has marketers strategizing as to how advertisement budgets would be reallocated in the event of a ban.
Source: We are social
Forward-thinkers will have already started diversifying their budgets across platforms. In addition to the major social media platforms with short video features, many will also consider challenger or niche variant brands for their growth potential, such as the music-focused Triller, the meme-focussed Yepp, or whatever the next stage of the Huddles/Clash app turns out to be.
With 85% of marketers saying the short-form video is the most effective format on social media, according to a HubSpot report, platforms need to think carefully about how they could best take advantage of the potential TikTok upset and use it to grow audience and revenue.
Preparing For This Potential New Landscape
The number one priority for platforms vying for TikTok’s top spot should be to find ways to attract the younger demographic that catalyzed its success. As Sprout reports, the most significant share of TikTok users is 10-19 years old (25%), while the audience base of other social media platforms is generally older. Against a backdrop of rapidly cycling, increasingly short-lived youth trends, and a growing spotlight on Gen Alpha as Gen Z starts to mature out of the marketing sweet spot, and businesses are challenged to cater to both.
The key to this could lie in incentivization – apps such as Yepp share 50% of daily revenue with users through in-app prizes, and Sweatcoin continues to grow as consumers become intrigued by potential rewards for leisure activities and time spent browsing, prompted by inflation and cost-of-living crises. TikTok currently pays little – about 2.5 cents per 1,000 views, leaving many creators disappointed and pushing them to rely on other platforms or advertising methods other than direct payments by the platform.
A second focus for platforms should be trying to match or outperform TikTok’s impressive records for making people spend more time in-app. And since, by definition, short-form videos are, well, short. The question is how to ensure people watch more of them.
The answer is simple – algorithm optimization is king. Ensure that video content is consistently relevant to users and continues to improve and develop in response to user actions. With the recent advancements in AI, we’re about to witness a dramatic evolution in how platforms understand and cater to user preferences and habits and even predict their future interests based on behavior patterns.
So while TikTok is a unique platform in many ways, other major players have spent years trying to adopt some of its winning features and attract users, resulting in a hugely competitive short-form video market that’s grown into its separate category from social media.
While the potential ban of one of the most prominent players could shake the industry, with so much value and 150m users up for grabs in the US, it’ll be fascinating to see where this audience goes. One thing is sure – they aren’t going to disappear overnight magically. The death of Vine didn’t herald the end of short-form video, and considering how much bigger the battles, budgets, and behemoths vying for this coveted market are now, it’s safe to say that if TikTok is banned, the worry will be, rather fittingly, short-lived.
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Image Source: Shutterstock
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