TikTok is having a great time. Business is booming not only on installs but on the revenue as well. A recent report from Sensor Tower said the video-sharing platform hacked nearly 113 million installs in February alone, ranking as the top app of the month globally.
Such success is admirable, considering it’s not easy to grow in the current crowded app market, thanks to the relentless proliferation of the internet. Consequently, Google’s video-sharing service, YouTube, is also having something in the works that is aimed to take on TikTok.
The report comes from The Information, citing two unnamed sources. The publication says the service referred to as Shorts and will be launched by the end of the year. It will not be an independent app, however. Shorts will be launched as a feature inside the YouTube mobile application.
It will also be highly dependent on the vast catalog of media available on the platform. The videos will be brief just like TikTok’s, although it is not yet clear the maximum length that Shorts will allow.
Shorts “will take advantage of the video service’s catalog of licensed music, songs from which will be available to use as soundtracks for the videos created by users,” familiar parties told the publication.
YouTube declined to comment on the matter.
“We don’t comment on rumor or speculation,” a company spokesperson told CNET.
Google’s efforts in trying to jump in the social media world have yet bore fruits, with their last most futile platform Google Plus being closed precisely a year ago on April 2.