YouTube vs. TikTok: Is This Really a Fight?

YouTubers are now having serious concerns about the growing popularity of another video app - TikTok.

If you don’t know what TikTok is, 4k Download team prepared a little explainer for you here: TikTok is a Chinese short-form mobile video app where young bloggers (mainly they’re under 20) share videos they make. This social media is so rapidly growing that conventional YouTubers concern.

TikTok is often called “lip-syncing” app because while music is playing in the background, the users sing along. But not only this online karaoke thing defines TikTok as the most installed social media app. The funniest part about the app is the visual content users make. It has it all - from cringey clips to act-out memes. Users make standalone videos, collaborate in duets, make reactions to one another, do impressions of each other, and other stuff.

The app is mainly in trend among youngsters, and there are not many influencers like on Instagram, Facebook, or even YouTube, that’s why the content is so easy and fun.

When It All Began

The lip-syncing app became well-known in the digital world after Chinese corporation Bytedance bought its main competitor Musical.ly. That was an $800 million deal which let TikTok conquer the western market.

Let’s get back in 2018 when TikTok had a huge boom in downloads worldwide.

According to Sensor Tower, the download count in the first half of 2018 was more than 104 million (which is 40 million higher than YouTube back then).

Now the count of TikTok active users equals 500 million from 150 countries.

TikTok vs YouTube

This year TikTok again showed that young generation belongs to it. On the 10-13th of July, a small town in California hosted its 10th VidCon US Convention. The event is designed for online video makers, brands, and those who are obsessed with video content. 75,000 is the count of visitors this year.

Typically, the Convention has always (since 2009 to be more specific) been a place for YouTubers. But this year VidCon US was nailed by new stars of the digital era - TikTokers. The party was literally crowded by these video bloggers who made collabs right at the event and posted thousands of videos in their blogs.

Though bloggers from different platforms like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, and even LinkedIn attended the Convention, almost every event there started with the question if TikTok will take the crown next year. All the events dedicated to TikTok or anyhow connected with the platform were overcrowded.

So, obviously TikTok has a huge fan base but it’s still far from perfection. And here’s why.

• Ads. YouTube is still considered by many advertisers, users, brands, and influencers as the biggest video host service. Apart from that, it’s still a very popular blogging platform with a diverse audience which is convenient for advertisers. Even though TikTok is skyrocketing, YouTube is not yet behind for marketers.

• Speaking of audience, by the way. People are not ready to give up visiting their favorite video hosting because of the aspiring and ambitious competitor. Regular users still watch, download videos and playlists, and share the content throughout the net. 4k Video Downloader is happy to assist in downloading videos, channels, playlists, and even subtitles not only from YouTube, but Facebook, Vimeo, and other video sites in high resolution.

• Audience. TikTok is full of youngsters making funny videos and even children bullying each other. But not only children are the main target audience. Another section of the platform are hunters for kids’ nude photos, and that is really a problem. YouTube had a similar issue with Elsagate (remember that strange videos for children?), but the platform is fighting with it.

• Content. YouTube users share different types of content on the platform, so it’s impossible even to imagine that there is anything you can’t find there. Admit it, you use YouTube instead of Google sometimes, right? Users, world-renowned brands, huge corporations, influencers, tv channels, and whole mass media companies have accounts on YouTube. I guess you can hardly imagine BBC or BMW having their TikTok accounts singing along with rap songs. TikTok is something you want to watch after a long workday. Though some brands already have an eye on TikTok as a promising ads platform.

Will TikTok Change the Game?

Brands and business whose target audience are young people should definitely consider TikTok as a working ad placement. Kids and adolescents choose TikTok over YouTube because it’s easier to draw attention and become famous. Many popular TikTokers gained fame overnight. Though TikTok has no monetization mechanisms, no one can understate direct interaction between bloggers and advertisers.

TikTok will definitely leave Twitch behind because there’s no need to broadcast for hours to earn some money on TikTok.

TikTok will highly likely outrun Facebook since young bloggers don’t take Facebook seriously.

It’s a bit more complicated with YouTube because the latter by far offers the simplest way of content monetization and getting money from ads. No other social network offers such a transparent and easy way to earn by means of advertisements.

While TikTok users are not jaded with millions of dollars and the platform is still growing, advertisers will surely seize the moment. TikTok is a DIY approach in blogging, without an expensive camera, a mic and special knowledge of video editing tools, so they won’t charge much for ads. For a while.