TikTok Rolling Out 10 Minute Clips And May Add Livestreaming
TikTok has seemingly taken over the social world and it’s even been predicated that it will surpass YouTube in minutes watched soon. That said, there is a certain homogeny of features that most platforms now have and TikTok is no exception. The company is now rolling out 10 minute long clips to all users, and there’s some speculation that livestreaming is coming next.
The Reason Behind The Increase
TikTok confirmed the time extension from the current 5 minutes to 10 minutes in this statement:
“We’re always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience. Last year, we introduced longer videos, giving our community more time to create and be entertained on TikTok. Today, we’re excited to start rolling out the ability to upload videos that are up to 10 minutes, which we hope would unleash even more creative possibilities for our creators around the world.”
Keep in mind that some creators have been able to post videos with this time limit for a while now, but it wasn’t available to all users as it is now.
Now if you think that 10 minute clips are there just to make users happy, think again. A major reason for the time extension is the fact that it’s pretty difficult to add pre or mid-roll ads on short content. This is a way to increase the ad revenue since, both of those advertising features are now possible.
The interesting thing is the TikTok’s Chinese sister app Douyin has had 15 minute time limits since 2019. Which brings us to livestreaming.
A Reason To Watch Douyin
Douyin has 600 million users in China alone and it’s somewhat of a test bed for TikTok as well as the reason why many new features feel fully formed when they roll out. Douyin has already tweaked the concept, the algorithm and the AI so any new feature added to the platform is pretty seamless.
Douyin’s livestream commerce increased by 7-fold in 2021, and TikTok wants to see similar financial gains. Many TikTok creators are unhappy because the revenue they generate isn’t commensurate with their popularity and livestreaming may be the key to placating them. Douyin’s success with livestream shopping gives TikTok hope that the same can be replicated on its platform as well.
When you think about it, there are actually three pieces to the TikTok financial puzzle; normal users, creators, and TikTok itself. If the new features excite the users, then TikTok and its creators will benefit. It’s still unknown if these new features will do that.
