YouTube launches short video service in US to compete with TikTok

The video hosting service YouTube, owned by Alphabet, has begun deploying a service for publishing short videos in the United States. Obviously, such a move was taken to compete with the hugely popular TikTok.

Shorts, powered by YouTube, allows users to record vertically oriented videos that can be easily viewed from a smartphone. As in TikTok, these videos can be supplemented with special effects and audio recordings available in the service’s music library. YouTube has stated that the Shorts service’s beta version will be fully rolled out in the US over the next few weeks.