TikTok challenges YouTube, and this is serious

On July 10-13, VidCon US – the 10th conference for online video creators, brands, platform representatives and fans of online visual content was held in the small California city of Anaheim. This year it has gathered 75,000 people.

“This is pandemonium. And it looks like Beatlemania, ”Ryan Detert, director of Influential (a platform that connects social media stars with brands), described the conference for CNN.

Since 2009, VidCon has been the go-to hangout for youtubers. This year, for the first time, video bloggers who publish mobile videos on the TikTok network became the new “rock stars” of the conference.

They are mostly teenagers and young people in their early 20s. They flooded the conference, they had the craziest party and buy tiktok views. Right during VidCon, they arranged for a hundred collaborations and released many videos in their vlogs.

According to The Verge, this time the crowd was “unrecognizable.” YouTube stars appeared surrounded by guards, they were still greeted with tears and wild screams. But among the hundreds of speakers and thousands of fans of video bloggers, there are many new faces.

Unlike the glamorous YouTubers, the TilTok stars went into direct contact with their fans and hung out with them without any protection they didn’t want (and probably can’t afford yet). The American press is unanimous: the main question of the conference this year is whether TikTok will push YouTube off the throne?

To get a feel for the atmosphere of this video blogging holiday, you can go over the video below (in particular, take a look at the TikTokers party):

Inside the exclusive TikTok Party

 

Strictly speaking, the conference was attended by representatives of all more or less prominent platforms on which it is possible to conduct video blogs: YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and even Pinterest with LinkedIn.

TikTok represented a pool of international stars, including Lauren Godwin (14 million subscribers, famous for her videos in which she opens her mouth to popular songs).

And the tiktokers got everyone’s attention. Their party, which took place in a bowling alley at a shopping center near the VidCon venue, was voted the best.

One of the reasons why the so-called TikTokers became the main attraction of the conference is that the famous bloggers did not act like Hollywood stars (as YouTubers did), but showed full accessibility to their fans who bought tickets to VidCon.

In almost all industry meetings, it was talked about TikTok becoming a real competitor to YouTube as a video blogging platform. For TikTok-oriented meetings, conference attendees lined up. The conferences were especially popular, where they talked about how to become a “viral sensation” in a new social network.

What does all this mean for marketers?

Brands targeting young people should be paying close attention to TikTok. Even in the Russian-language segment of the social network, videos under trending hashtags are already gaining hundreds of thousands and millions of views, or even more. It is not uncommon to become stars on TikTok overnight.

Young video bloggers are paying more and more attention to the social network, because it is much easier to break through it than on YouTube. And, although there are no monetization mechanisms for vlogs in TikTok yet, no one canceled the direct interaction of advertisers and bloggers.

The new generation of blogging youth, which has stuck with the name “tiktokers”, is using this social application in order to quickly gain an audience. Then many people start YouTube channels and bring their fans there. Let’s say that the same Lauren Goldwyn has already attracted more than 650 thousand subscribers. And content monetization on YouTube is already well developed, although far from perfect.

TikTok is not the first strictly mobile social video platform. In 2012–2017, Vine followed a similar path. At one time, it was bought by the owners of Twitter. But the new owners were unable to establish content monetization, Vine lagged behind competitors and was closed.

Apparently, the management of the Chinese company Beijing ByteDance Technology Co Ltd., which owns TikTok, remembers this Vine error and is not going to repeat it.

Popular video blogger Philip DeFranco (6.4 million YouTube subscribers) told reporters about TikTokers: “These TikTok kids will replace half of the YouTube users who came to VidCon this year.”

Analysts agree that TikTok will leave Twitch behind because it doesn’t need hours of streaming to tangibly monetize content.

TikTok will be ahead of Facebook too, because teens literally despise it. Among the new generation, the reputation of this social network is worse than ever.

So far, YouTube offers video bloggers the simplest solution for generating ad revenue. And so far, no one in this area has seriously competed with him. However, TikTok is now being assigned the role of subverting YouTube.

While tiktokersare not yet spoiled by advertising revenues, and the social network is in the stage of growth and formation – advertisers targeting a young audience should take advantage of the moment. And remember that the global audience of TikTok has already exceeded half a billion people.

Philip DeFranco stated on Twitter: “TikTok is launching a new generation of vloggers, singers, commentators, sketch artists … If you grow an audience in a newer, younger and less saturated market, and if you’re worth it, fans will follow you. wherever you go. ”

Vloggers on TikTok today have a low entry threshold. They do not need to recoup expensive video and audio equipment, expensive production. Tiktokers are the new wave of the DIY movement, and advertising will not be expensive for a while.