YouTube Rolls Out TikTok-Style Shorts In The U.S.

Google LLC-owned YouTube's short-form video application and TikTok competitor is launching in the U.S., Gizmodo reported Friday.

YouTube Shorts was released in beta this week for its U.S. customers after testing over the past months in India.

During tests, YouTube Shorts looked and felt the same as TikTok, experts said. It allows users to record, edit and share video clips that are a maximum of 60 seconds and employs music.

YouTube has music licenses from hundreds of labels, including Sony, Universal and Warner Group. Others include Warner Chappell Music, Believe, Merlin, Kobalt, CD Baby, Empire, Reservoir and OneRPM.

YouTube Shorts' test run in India racked up more than 6.5 billion views a day, Todd Sherman of the Google-owned video service said.

With a wider rollout, YouTube is bringing in some new sample friendly features for users who can now snag audio samples from other YouTube Shorts for their own content. YouTube also allows video creators who don't want their audio sampled to opt out.

"We really want to create a playground of creativity here where we give creators the raw materials to produce great videos," The Verge quoted Sherman as saying.

YouTube is developing ways for users to earn money using its latest quick-clip feature, Sherman said. Worldwide, YouTube has deals with more than 250 labels and publishers for use in the Shorts product, the company says.

Shorts intends to challenge China-operated, ByteDance Ltd. owned TikTok - which is under scrutiny because of its alleged connections with the government.

In August Facebook, Inc.-owned Instagram responded to TikTok's with its own short-form video called Reels.

While YouTube Shorts is officially on U.S. soil, YouTube's blog says the rollout is going to be "gradual" over the coming weeks.

YouTube Shorts is aimed at cross-promoting YouTube's other services - including YouTube Music which still lags far behind Spotify Technology S.A. in terms of popularity and users.