YouTube is a platform for online videos and it is owned by Google. It is also one of the most visited websites in the world. YouTube videos can be browsed on mobile phones via the YouTube application which is available for both, android and ios and it can be accessed through desktops and laptops on any browser. YouTube has always been the platform for providing information as well as entertainment videos for the viewers.
Very recently another platform of Chinese origin called TikTok had arrived and taken up a huge population of the content creators and viewers on its side. Due to various conflicts and other issues, TikTok had to face its departure from the entertainment world in various countries in a drastic way which in turn paved a way for YouTube to rise and shine even more.
The Story Of Tiktok
HISTORY
TikTok was originally released in China by the name of Douyin to upload short videos. It is more like a social media platform where people can make videos of different genres with a time length ranging from 15 seconds to one minute. It was released in China back in 2016 but became available to the rest of the world in August 2018 after merging with Musical.ly, which was another Chinese social media platform. Tiktok was initially available in 40 different languages which are spoken worldwide. It was made available, worldwide via the app-stores of android and ios users.
FEATURES
The mobile application allows people to create upload short videos with a musical background. It also lets the user, use various edits in the form of filters, slow-motion and time-lapse videos, etc. TikTok provides a lot of such attractive features which made it popular among a huge population worldwide. Many people gained fame and became public figures using TikTok.
People viewing the uploaded short videos can even record their reactions to the videos they are watching. TikTok even allows users to save their videos in the draft if they do not wish to upload their videos right away.
Users can even keep the video contents of their profile hidden from the public whom they have not authorized to follow or view their content by making the account private. An account, which is not private however can be discovered by anybody. Users can even send videos and texts to their friends and other people in the private messaging section.
Users with more than 1000 followers are categorized as influencers and they have another special feature of making live videos where they broadcast their content in real-time. TikTok provided various new and exciting features due to which many companies started to resort to this platform for commercial advertisements of their services and products.
CONTROVERSIES
As TikTok could successfully provide services in the form of entertainment, infotainment, and employment to some extent it also led to some demerits. Users started to get addicted and found it difficult to stop using the platform for their interest. Many users even uploaded short videos which had obscene, immoral, or vulgar content. The inappropriate contents were not being stopped or prohibited from getting uploaded by TikTok and that led to concern in many countries. Many users even spread false information via TikTok.
CONFLICTS
Due to the various controversies over TikTok was finally banned once and for all in some countries like India, United States, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Pakistan where the application was removed from the app-stores. TikTok ban in the US was proposed on 6th August 2020 under the order of President Donald Trump.
According to the US officials, the operator/owner of the application could take action to jeopardize the national security of the United States. In return, TikTok filed a lawsuit against the US President in a request to prevent the TikTok ban in the US. After the hearing, it was decided that the app would still remain in the app stores but the extra commerce department restrictions would not be blocked. The restrictions were set on 12th November 2020. However, due to the legal dispute, the TikTok ban in the US has been halted for now.
The History Of YouTube
YouTube has been a part of our lives for more than a decade now. YouTube allows its users to upload long videos which can be as long as 10-15 minutes as well as a few hours. It has been a platform for individual content creators and recently for various organizations, companies, etc. as well.
YouTube provides well maintained set of features for viewers like changing video quality according to the availability of internet speed, speeding up and slowing down of a video, annotations and pop-up texts on the screen, live streaming, 3D videos, and 360° view videos, etc. YouTube also has an array of features for YouTubers. The security and other terms and conditions of YouTube are also well versed and maintains the social, moral, and ethical integrity of their uploaded content.
Some newly implemented user services include YouTube premium, YouTube TV, YouTube Go, YouTube Music, YouTube Stories, and YouTube Shorts. After the various controversies and ban on TikTok in some countries, YouTube introduced its own feature of uploading short videos. This was first tested in India in September 2020. Users could upload short videos which were up to 15 sec long. As there was a huge population of TikTok users, the ban had all its users move to YouTube.
The shorts are too short YouTube videos and are only available for users with over 10,000 subscribers. Other people can use YouTube Stories which are not as short as YouTube Shorts. YouTube has overall, provided a platform for all kinds of users although it can work a bit more on the video features as TikTok allowed the users to use multiple modifications, not all of which are present on YouTube Shorts.
Conclusion:
YouTube has taken a proper opportunity of the situation where TikTok had to face depreciation in its growth due to some flaws which YouTube has worked upon and come up with its very own successful YouTube shorts.
