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Would you watch a 60 minute video on TikTok?
Evidently, TikTok’s confident that at least some people will, as it’s launched a new test of 60-minute uploads with some users.
As you can see in this example, posted by social media expert Matt Navarra, TikTok’s trying out even longer videos, as it looks to expand its entertainment remit.
The platform has been steadily increasing its video length limits over time, going from 15 seconds per clip at launch, to 60 seconds, then 3 minutes, then 5 minutes, before rising to 10 minutes in 2022.
Last October, TikTok began experimenting with 15 minute uploads, which it increased again to 30 minute clips in January this year.
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As such, the expansion to 60 minute clips is no real surprise, But the key real question, as noted, is whether users will actually watch hour long videos in the app?
According to TikTok, there is demand from creators for such, as it’ll provide them with more opportunity to fill out their uploads with longer narratives.
As reported by TechCrunch:
“TikTok says that while creators can weave multipart stories together by telling viewers to go to part two or more of a story, it often hears from creators who want more time for things like cooking demos, beauty tutorials, educational lesson plans, comedic sketches and more.”
So creators want it, but viewers?
Honestly, I can’t see there being big demand for longer clips. And considering that Meta is now actively dissuading creators from uploading Reels that are more than 90 seconds long, the broader behavioral trends would suggest that there’s not a lot of interest in super long videos in-stream.
But at the same time, TikTok wants to expand its platform, and become a bigger facilitator of entertainment.
Earlier this year, TikTok also launched a program which provided incentives for creators to post longer videos in landscape format, so there’s clearly some impetus from the company to make this shift, and ideally, change the way that people consume content in the app.
On the Chinese version of the app, called Douyin, it’s also been encouraging longer videos, and maybe, based on that experience, TikTok is looking to follow the same path.
And potentially, that could also enable it to become a bigger challenger for YouTube in the creator race.
Longer videos provide more monetization potential, as you can insert both pre and mid-roll adds into the experience, and right now, TikTok is still limited in its monetization pathways.
Maybe, then, that’s the key motivation, in reaching parity with other platforms to enable creators to build their home base in the app, as opposed to using TikTok as a supplementary channel.
Again, I’m not sure that the user response will be as positive, but it’s probably worth an experiment. And if TikTok thinks that it’s going to be banned in the U.S. soon either way, it may as well try everything before that.
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