YouTube launches TikTok rival in Australia

TikTok has been on a tear of late. YouTube figures it has the perfect response.

From today (July 13), YouTube Shorts rolls out in beta across more than 100 countries, including Australia.

As its brand would suggest, YouTube’s latest feature is a short-form video experience, a digital marketplace for viral clips captured on cellphones.

Through the Shorts camera, users can record and launch videos of up to 60 seconds, add filters and text, and the video-sharing giant is testing the addition of audio from across its platform.

“We’ve also been starting to roll out the ability to sample audio from videos across YouTube - which includes billions of videos worldwide,” reads a blog statement posted Tuesday (July 13), “unlocking a new playground of creativity like never before.”

According to YouTube, it’s all legit. “We’ve also worked alongside our music partners to make sure artists and creators have a large library of songs to use in their Shorts,” the message continues.

Over time, the library and number of partners will continue to grow.

YouTube

First announced in September 2020, the YouTube Shorts player now claims more than 6.5 billion daily views globally. 

YouTube’s new app enters a space where TikTok is firmly established, particularly with young Australians, and boasts a growing team headquartered in Sydney.

According to market research firm Roy Morgan, more than 1.6 million Australians visit the TikTok website or use the app in an average month. That's about 7% of the population aged six years and older.

The official TikTok Australia page on Instagram boasts 3.2 million followers.

TikTok usage drops away sharply with older age groups, with only 6% of Millennials and 2% of Gen X logging on, Roy Morgan reports.

Whether YouTube Shorts can entice these older users, time will tell.

YouTube’s brand has a massive head start.

According to data published by Vivid Social – Social Media Agency, YouTube grabs 16,500,000 unique visitors in Australia each month, a close second to Facebook among all social sites.