YouTube Launches YouTube Create to Help Combat the Growth of TikTok

YouTube, the world’s largest video-sharing platform, has just unveiled its latest feature: YouTube Create. This mobile app is designed to empower content creators by providing an intuitive and feature-packed video editing experience.

This standalone video editing app, distinct from the main YouTube app can be a game-changer for aspiring YouTubers. YouTube Create is a competitor to TikTok’s creative tools, which has been the premier choice for non-technical creators who want to experiment with video but may not have the editing expertise. It was important for YouTube to implement a tool with these capabilities as it continues to battle with TikTok for user attention.

Since 2021, the average time spent per day on TikTok has exceeded the amount of time spent on YouTube by adults in the United States from 2021-2024. TikTok had a slight lead of 30 seconds in 2021 but that number has increased to approximately 10 minutes in 2024. The ease of creating and viewing short-form content is the most significant reason why. This trend proved true with minors and teens ranging in ages from 4 through 18 – who began to watch more TikTok than YouTube on and average daily basis starting in June 2020. The latest study done by Qustodio shows the gulf has widened significantly as kids in 2022 saw their average daily use of TikTok climb to 107 minutes compared to YouTube at just 67 minutes.

YouTube Shorts was released in 2021 to help combat this problem and YouTube Create now adds an additional component to keep users on YouTube longer. With Create, users can upload clips, split and trim videos, use effects and access royalty-free music to complement their videos. These songs, which are copyright-safe, will also sync the beats of the song to the video clips, similar to TikTok.

By offering a suite of tools just for YouTube creators, the company hopes to capture more of the market that prefers to use standalone tools for editing videos. Create will now be offered in 21 total countries.

Author: Chris Osei-Kusi 2023/2024 Articling Student-At-Law

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Image from unsplash.com/Sebastian Pandelache