Recently, TikTok has been actively acquiring new features. Not so long ago, the maximum possible video length on the platform was increased to three minutes. The company is now working to increase the length of the videos to five minutes.
Social media researcher Matt Navarra was the first to discover that TikTok is working to increase the maximum video length. He shared a screenshot of a message that the social network will showcase when the change is implemented. Navara also stated that TikTok likely plans to increase the video length to ten minutes later.
We do not know when the innovation will become available to all TikTok users, but, apparently, some have already received the opportunity to upload five-minute videos. It is curious that at the same time there are those who manage to upload even longer ten-minute videos to the social network.
TikTok users will surely have mixed feelings about the potential changes, with some already sounding off on Navarra’s tweet. “YouTube is typing,” one tweet reads, referring to how TikTok’s longer videos now more closely resemble those on YouTube, which launched its own TikTok competitor Shorts last year.
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TikTok users will soon be able to shop directly in the app
TikTok users will soon be able to make in-app purchases. The new platform shopping feature is taking place in collaboration with the e-commerce platform Shopify.
TikTok is very popular all over the world and content creators in their videos often advertise some kind of services or goods; including cosmetics, clothing and much more. Currently, users can only buy any products through advertising. This is about to change as content authors get a tool to add a product tab directly to their profile.
According to the available data, the new feature is currently in tests by several users; and it will become generally available this fall. Thus, TikTok will not only join Instagram and Facebook, which provide the ability to make purchases in their applications; but will also move to so-called social commerce, selling products directly through social media platforms.
TikTok’s president of global business solutions, Blake Chandlee, believes that the in-app shopping experience reflects how people are already using the platform to find products. Obviously, the advent of the shopping function on TikTok will intensify the competition; between the short video platform and Facebook in the e-commerce space.
“Social commerce is important because it’s the new town square” where consumers go to find and buy new products, Harley Finkelstein, Shopify’s president, said in an interview.