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Comment by SmellyGeekBoy | Hacker News Reader

TikTok is a mobile-only vertical video platform consisting of memes and kids dancing to popular music. YouTube is a platform where long-form, high definition, well produced content is becoming increasingly more prevalent. I genuinely don't see how the two are even remotely alike.

I appreciate that TikTok is the "new hotness" but I don't see its relevance to this conversation about YouTube or why the author felt the need to shoehorn it into every paragraph.

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A lot of the most popular content is "long-form" for no other reson than Youtube's 10-minute minimum length requirement for monetizing via ads. Video makers have responded to this arbitrary requirement in exactly how you would expect, by padding out the video length with dull filler material.

Think of the amount of writing that goes into a single 20-minute TV sitcom episode. The most popular ones have 24 episodes a year. Youtubers are expected to come up with 10-minute episodes 1x/week if not more frequently. The quality of the videos take a nosedive, the creators burn out, and subscriptions and views fall as a result.

TikTok's shorter videos can arguably be more entertaining as there's no arbitrary length requirement that incentivizes filler.

The 10 minute limit is for having mid-roll ads - short videos are still monetized, but they only have an ad at the start of the video. Creators only go over 10 minutes so they can have multiple ads on their video instead of just one.

>Youtube's 10-minute minimum length requirement for monetizing via ads.

This is inaccurate. It is suspected, but not confirmed, that the YouTube recommendation algorithm favors videos longer than 10 minutes because they increase the amount of time users spend on the platform. Videos need not be 10 minutes long to be monetized.

The distinction is largely irrelevant, since creators generally believe such a thing to exist, which raises more questions of algorithm transparency.

YouTube is the rawest form of reality TV. Networks learned a long time ago these are more profitable than sitcoms or dramas

Every reality TV show is heavily scripted and edited just as much as a regular show, so it's really the veneer of reality that distinguishes one from the other.

Actual reality is incredibly boring. I'd say that's what networks learned a long time ago.

Neither of those are insurmountable challenges for TikTok should they want to solve for them. The hardest part is becoming the destination people think of when they think video. TikTok looks like it’s getting some traction here.

If TikTok plans to make money from ads it will have the same problems YouTube does. Advertisers will get restrictive on what types of videos they want their products on.

They'll also need their own copyright detection system when lawsuits start coming their way. Then we'll have come full circle.

TikTok is an "the ads are the content" type place, think Zach King (sp?), he makes clever videos as adverts but they also comprise his channels content on TikTok. If TikTok can/do monetise that usage of their system then they can get a payout from advertising.

Or they can get TikTok to the height of popularity and slowly kill it by adding more and more ads ... the 'YouTube Way', one might say.

A move to a more oligopoly-like market is a step forward though, no?

Not sure about that, Instagram is a much larger platform, and as far as I can tell, Instagram TV is not taking off.

> The hardest part is becoming the destination people think of when they think video.

While this is true, what's the gain of that? YouTube has it, are they making money? If not, will they in the future?

I found that odd too. I like TikTok, but it’s really nothing like YouTube. TikTok is basically a better Vine.

Some of the creators I follow have taken the drastic step of beginning to upload their SFW content to Pornhub as well to maximize views and take sole control out of YouTube's hands. This way, if their video gets taken down on YouTube for some (often BS) reason they can upload a junk placeholder video that just links to the Pornhub version.

This argument sounds a lot like the ones I heard about why Instagram would never be as big as Flickr. YouTube needs creators and if other platforms keep attracting them, YouTube could have a big problem.

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