The popular video-based app, TikTok, has confirmed that they will be increasing the video lengths to 10 minutes. Now, TikTok is becoming less and less a short-form video platform. This update will be coming out after a few weeks of testing.
“We’re always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience,” said TikTok’s spokesperson. “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.”
The app originally started out as primarily 15-second long videos and then later increased to 60 seconds. Then in July of 2021, the length of videos increased to 3 minutes. TikTok explains that it is for long series to be cut down and easier to access. Longer content has the potential to make monetization easier by keeping people on the app more engaged.
While TikTok pushes for longer videos, other social media apps have created their own equivalents to TikTok, like Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Snapchat Spotlight. “I think that it’s going to be a lot more seamless for TikTok to integrate up to 10-minute video content than it has been for YouTube to introduce Shorts just because of the nature of how the apps are set up,” said Austen Tosone, an influencer who teaches other influencers to maximize profit.
Before, the short videos were a problem. They were linked to a decrease in attention span. Using the app for just 90 minutes can be detrimental to someone’s collective attention span in the long run. Additionally, it is possible that no one will watch the new 10 minute videos as users could just scroll past.
Matt Navarra, a social media consultant, said longer video content would make TikTok “more of an arsenal to compete with the likes of YouTube and other platforms where longer-form video content is the norm,” but TikTok’s new problem is to “merge its famed algorithm for short-form content in that vertical feed with the long-form content, which isn’t necessarily going to be easy.”
Vine, a similar app to TikTok, ran off of short videos as well, but could not generate ad revenue and eventually shut down. To try to avoid this fate, TikTok will let users create 10-minute videos. The Chinese counterpart of TikTok, Douyin, has had 15-minute videos available to users since 2019. Longer videos have helped creativity on Douyin and promoted vlog video diaries which were a popular form of video entertainment in China at the time.
How TikTok users will react to this new update is the real question. “Who is gonna sit for a 10-minute video, I would swipe so fast. If it was going that slow I would have scrolled. I think it is gonna be bad for the app, cause who is willing to watch 10-minute videos. If someone is willing to watch that, they are on the wrong app.” Chanelle Anderson (‘24) critiqued the new update.
It is hard to say whether or not the developing TikTok update will be worth it, but it will hopefully bring a new kind of content to the app.
