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I've noticed that YouTube also gets a few small things wrong with their Shorts. Things like not being able to play the video while reading comments or making the interface less fluid or waiting for TikTok to add features before they follow (eg. being able to scrub through a video. If YouTube added this, I'd probably stop using TikTok pretty quickly).

TikTok also has network effects of creativity. I don't think I've ever seen a trend go viral on YouTube Shorts before TikTok. Nor have I scene any stitches or duets (do they even have that feature?)

I think they have a chance to capture a huge market though if they get it right (although considering most of the people using Shorts are just reposting TikToks, it'll take some time).

I actually like YouTube shorts. It seems to capture my interests more than TikTok does. With TikTok, I find myself watching inane stuff that my unconscious mind is compelled to watch, but as soon as I snap out of this dream state and realize what I'm watching I see how stupid it is. YouTube shorts seems to be easy to consume videos that I actually find interesting.

That's a cool perspective, I guess I'm just really easy to recommend content for :)

> Additionally, the TikTok collaborative recommendation algorithm is leaps and bounds above any other platform's. They've got a very active userbase, they invest in creators, and they provide a way to get discovered as a creative teenager who wants an outlet.

That is no different to the behaviours of the other social networks that also have their own 'recommendation algorithm' that governs which content is seen and unseen by the developers and who's data is run on the hundreds of millions of users sensitive personal data, search, watch habits and user interaction data and is always subject to change or adjustment. The same goes for YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.

Given that TikTok has screwed with their users in the past [0] [1], how long until they will do it again so that we will talk about the next social network that everyone moves to?

> Overall--if you have a history of social media addiction, use it with caution. If you're not afraid of getting sucked in for hours at a time, it truly is a wonderful platform full of stellarly creative people.

That sounds more like magnificent news to the investors, not to the users.

[0] https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/25/22301704/tiktok-92-millio...

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-56815480

How can any of that content have any depth with a max video length of 15 seconds?

Max length is actually 1 minute! They're also testing 3-minute videos for some creators. My short films are all almost exactly a minute long, and I find it's a really fun storytelling challenge to create something meaningful in such a small time frame.

okay a minute makes more sense that's about 150 words.

It's interesting because any time you see Part 1 within a video, that's a significant sign that it's a low quality video that is just stringing it out for viewtime and you should skip it.

But of course there is quality content that lasts more than a minute. The work-around for the 1 minute limit that the community has built around is that the top up-voted comment is a link to the next part.

On the contrary, there are many YouTube videos that could be explained in 15 seconds to a minute on TikTok but instead you have to sit through a full 10 minutes to get the really interesting parts.

If you want more depth, often times, people will post multiple parts on TikTok (something which has a poor UX but at least works) so you can dive deeper into a topic if you're interested.

> By the time Snapchat and YouTube started taking short-form content seriously

Wasn't Vine first to take short-form content seriously?