Chinese video-sharing platform TikTok is reportedly rolling out the option to post videos up to three minutes in length, in an effort to compete against YouTube, Triller, and other startups in the video sharing space.

Drew Kirchhoff, product manager at TikTok, expressed that this move will provide TikTok users with more flexibility and space for creating new and a wider variety of content.

It is worth noting that the ByteDance owned company had already released this feature for a small number of creators across the world on a trial basis. In fact, TikTok first begun testing 3 minutes videos as an early access feature starting December last year. The new option will be available for all users in a few weeks’ time, cited credible sources.

For the record, TikTok users could post only 15 second-long videos when the platform was first launched in 2016. The Chinese social networking service then increased this limit to one minute. However, users still wanted more time per video, particularly when filming beauty tutorials, comedic sketches, beauty demos, and cooking demos, which prompted TikTok to take this decision.

This change in video length will help Tiktok to compete with American video sharing giant YouTube, which recently launched YouTube Shorts, a feature that enables users to create videos clips on its main platform.

Speaking of competitors, Instagram released its ‘Reels’ feature in mid-2020 which works similarly to TikTok. Further, Instagram Head Adam Mosseri recently said that the platform will soon be trying out new video features to capitalize on the rising trend of video sharing and viewing.

TikTok is highly popular among young smartphone users and currently boasts of one billion users across the world, with more than 100 million in the U.S. alone. With the latest update, this figure will likely continue to rise.

Source: https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/tiktok-bumps-up-video-length-to-3-minutes/84056279