Interesting Competition Between Social Networks in Short Videos: Can Meta and Google Challenge TikTok? These days, wherever you look, you see reels, stories, and shorts. Short videos are the talk of the town on social media. This type of video format has not only changed the style of entertainment but is transforming the entire nature of social media. And at the centre of this transformation is TikTok.
Launched in 2016, TikTok currently has more than 1.12 billion monthly active users. It has become the world’s most popular platform for short videos. In the United States alone, more than 118 million people spend an average of one hour and 48 minutes on TikTok every day. User habits and attention spans are so deeply embedded in TikTok that many young people are busy scrolling all day.
Which keeps the user engaged for hours. Traditional entertainment media like TV or radio dramas tried to capture the attention of the audience for the entire duration. But the purpose of short videos is to capture the attention for only a few seconds or minutes and then move on to the next video of interest.
TikTok’s success and its powerful algorithm have had such an impact that platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn are copying it, with examples including Shorts, Reels, and a feed featuring short videos.
Algorithm
The main basis of TikTok’s power is its algorithm. Which is very capable of recommending content according to the user’s interests.
TikTok initially focused on short videos, while many others did not pay much attention to it. Earlier, Twitter had a short video platform called Vine. But for some reason, the company did not continue it. Due to which the market was empty for TikTok, and it took advantage of it.
Competition
Seeing TikTok’s success, other social networks have also joined the race for short videos. Meta-owned Instagram introduced Reels in August 2020. Google-owned YouTube introduced Shorts in September 2020 after TikTok was banned in India. Facebook also introduced its own version of Reels in the same year. Professional network LinkedIn has also started to capitalise on the popularity of short videos since 2024.
But monetisation is challenging
Despite the high user engagement, monetising short videos is not easy. Despite high engagement, it is still difficult for creators to monetise short videos. Platforms can place a lot of ads on long videos, but short videos have limited space for ads. This means lower revenue per view. Ads on short videos are often placed in the middle of the video, which users can easily skip. This is why social media platforms are prioritising longer videos for advertising.
The Future
Short videos have made social media more engaging, more personal, and more intense. But they also carry the risk of weakening attention spans and affecting mental health.
The question now is, are short videos making us smarter, or are they just sacrificing our patience and thinking skills for quick entertainment? The future of short videos remains uncertain due to increased scrutiny from lawmakers and changing algorithms. Platforms rely on e-commerce and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered recommendations to stay ahead of the market.
One thing is certain: this trend is unlikely to end here or return to the long-form video format of the past. The future of social media is moving towards shorter, faster, and more personalised content.
