The short video platform by YouTube, called YouTube Shorts, is set to take on social media platform TikTok in other countries other than India. It will be available in the US in March.

The video-sharing platform has been garnering over 3.5 billion views a day during beta testing in India. The company head Susan Wojcicki has shared her plans of expanding YouTube Shorts to other markets as well.

"So far, videos in our new Shorts player - which helps people around the world watch short videos on YouTube - are receiving an impressive 3.5 billion daily views!" Susan was quoted by AFP. "We're looking forward to expanding Shorts to more markets this year.”

YouTube had chosen India as the first country to launch YouTube Shorts to fill in the void created by TikTok. Pretty much like TikTok, YouTube’s Shorts lets users create a 15-second or less short video and upload it on the platform. Users can also shoot different videos and stitch them together using the set of creator tools provided. Apart from this, users can also monitor the speed of their video and add music to their videos using YouTube’s song library.

“We’re excited to announce that we are building YouTube Shorts, a new short-form video experience right on YouTube for creators and artists who want to shoot short, catchy videos using nothing but their mobile phones. Over the next few days in India, we’re launching an early beta of Shorts with a handful of new creative tools to test out. This is an early version of the product, but we're releasing it now to bring you — our global community of users, creators and artists — on our journey with us as we build and improve Shorts. We’ll continue to add more features and expand to more countries in the coming months as we learn from you and listen to your feedback,” YouTube had said in an official blog.

There is no standalone app for Shorts. The short video platform is present inside the YouTube app.
It comes with a couple of TikTok-like features including the speed, timer, and countdown, and a multi-segment camera. So the multi-segment camera lets users string multiple video clips together, users also get to add music to their videos from a large library of songs that Youtube promises will continue to grow with time. The timer and countdown function will let users shoot a video without having to press the button constantly and within a set time frame.

“There’s much more to come, and over the next few weeks and months, we’ll continue to roll out more creation tools and easier ways to watch short videos on YouTube as we listen to your feedback,” YouTube had said that it will also add more features in the future.

Will this be a huge shift in the world of social media? Make sure to check out Honest London if you are looking for social media help.