TikTok Instagram Snapchat and the rise of bitesized content Qiuqing Tai
Transcriber: Leslie Gauthier
Reviewer: Joanna Pietrulewicz
More than 1.5 billion people
around the world,
over half of them under the age of 24,
regularly watch short videos:
clips of 60 seconds or less
using Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram Stories
and other smartphone apps.
The market barely existed seven years ago,
yet today creators are uploading
702 million short videos every day.
As our attention span
is falling to seconds,
short video is not only here to stay
but will become the new normal.
Unlike other social platforms
such as Instagram,
where perfectly edited,
polished images are the norm,
short videos are more accessible,
inviting imperfection and authenticity.
And because each clip is so short,
content producers have to be creative
and concise communicators.
But these bite-sized videos
are more than just fun and entertainment.
For me personally,
as a consultant and mother,
short videos are where
I get parenting tips.
On my way to work I can quickly learn
about the secrets of breastfeeding
while traveling
and get great ideas about how
to make my daughter sleep sooner.
Businesses are also learning
that short videos are a great way
to find new customers
and expand the diversity
of their audiences.
Earlier this year,
I led a project with TikTok,
the world’s leading short-video platform,
to assess the economic and social
impact of this bite-sized economy.
Our study shows that this young medium
is changing a lot more
than the way we spend our leisure time.
In 2019,
short video generated
an estimated 95 billion US dollars
in goods and services sold
and created roughly
1.2 million jobs globally.
Even within this short lifespan,
short video is already impacting
the way we work, communicate and learn.
In the age of COVID-19,
while museums around the world
are facing indefinite closure,
many have acted quickly
to bring in an engage and new,
younger audience remotely.
The Uffizi Gallery in Florence,
which just established its official
new website three years ago,
is using short video
to attract new audiences
to their statues and paintings.
By matching exhibits with emojis,
music lyrics or funny quotes,
the museum is making
its artwork more accessible
and relevant to the young
generation of art lovers.
In one of its recent posts,
a cartoon coronavirus turned into a rock
and smashed in half
in front of Caravaggio’s
painting “Medusa,”
who has the power to turn
those who gaze at her into stone.
(Video) (Music: “Symphony No. 5”)
(Recording) Cardi B: Coronavirus!
(Voice-over) Qiuqing Tai:
Uffizi also experimented
with influencers livestreaming
from the gallery on short-video platform,
allowing viewers around the world
to experience art
that they’ve never been able
to see in person.
Since its appearance
on TikTok in April 2020,
the museum’s profile has attracted
more than 43,000 followers
in three months.
This speed is far quicker
than their journey on Twitter,
where it built up a similar number
of fanbase during the past four years.
Small businesses are also using
short video as a way to find new audiences
who might have never heard of them
or their products before.
In 2018, Douyin, the leading
Chinese short-video platform,
as part of a social
responsibility initiative
to alleviate poverty in China,
launched a campaign
to help individual farmers
and small businesses in China’s
mountainous areas sell farm produce.
As one of its pilot projects,
Douyin invited content producers
to create four pieces
of 15-second short videos
showcasing the quality of their products.
This is on top of other,
regular PR initiatives,
such as promotional articles.
Douyin wanted to leverage
the large user base of short video
to find those customers
who might be interested in those products
and then connected them
with the e-commerce website
so that people can buy things
as they watch the videos.
In just five days,
the initiative helped nearly 4,000
families in Sichuan Province
sell an astonishing
120,000 kilograms of plums.
Many brands that are interested
in hiring and recruiting young people
have been using short video
as a fresh way to engage
with Generation Z.
For example,
more than half of McDonald’s employees
are aged between 16 to 24.
In Australia, the brand was struggling
to recruit in recent years,
so it launched something
called “snaplication,”
which is a Snapchat lens
that enabled users
to shoot 10-second videos explaining why
they’d be a perfect McDonald’s employee
and then prompted them to a link
with a job application.
Within 24 hours
after launching the campaign,
McDonald’s received 3,000 “snaplications,”
four times more than the number
they received in a whole week
using traditional methods.
While it’s unclear whether hiring
over short video is the best way
to find the right people for the job
or to retain talent,
but judging solely
from recruiting numbers,
the campaign was a global hit.
In Saudi Arabia,
McDonald’s received 43,000
snaplications within 24 hours,
and the company launched
the campaign again later in the US.
Much like how I like to get
parenting tips from short video,
many users also want to leverage
the platform to learn,
but in tiny, bit-sized doses.
In our study, short video users globally
ranked the top benefits of the platform
as discovering new interests
and learning new skills.
In emerging markets especially,
short video for learning and education
has huge potential
to change the status quo.
In 2019, TikTok launched
a campaign in India
with the aim of democratizing learning
for the Indian digital community.
While the app has been banned
in the country since July 2020,
it launched a huge demand
for educational short-video content
and other platforms
are jumping in to fill in the space.
TikTok was able to spark this trend
by collaborating with Indian
social enterprises,
education startups
and popular creators
to produce 15-second short videos
that covered a range of topics
from school-level science
to learning new languages.
As the first wave of short video
became widely spread on the platform,
audiences got inspired
and some even began to create
their own educational content.
By October 2019,
the campaign had generated
more than 10 million videos
and garnered 48 billion views.
Through helping people learn
and participate in the process
of content creation,
short videos are in fact helping prep
and train the skilled population
that can take on
the challenges of the future.
Like all social media,
there are valid concerns
around short-video platforms,
including data privacy,
the addictive nature of the format
and the lack of nuance
and context in the content.
However, I still think
that the positive outcomes of short video
will outweigh its downsides.
I believe short video will become
a more vital economic and social force
in the future.
It is precisely because of this
that we need to find the right way
to benefit from this young medium
through collaboration among users,
platforms and policymakers.
Thank you.