Shorts is a competitor to TikTok
YouTube said on Monday that it will begin testing a TikTok competitor called Shorts in India, after TikTok is currently banned due to its Chinese ownership as a result of an existing dispute between the two countries.
In a company blog post, Google-owned YouTube said the Shorts feature allows users to create videos of up to 15 seconds that can be watched in a dedicated section of the YouTube mobile app as well.
Like the TikTok app, users will be able to set their videos to music and add special effects.
The Information first reported that YouTube was planning the Shorts app in April.
By launching it in India first, YouTube is following the rules of the game after banning its rival, TikTok, as Facebook did when it launched the Instagram-like Reels app, which was also initially made available in India.
The ban on TikTok in India this summer created a vacuum for other short-form video services in India, which Google and Facebook are exploiting.
We previously reported on how YouTube employees, thanks to Google’s ownership of Android, are studying the behavior of TikTok users on Android phones in India to accelerate the planned launch of its ‘Shorts’ app.
