Vine, with its 6-second looped videos, is believed to be the western world's first shot at the short-video platform. It shifted the focus towards short, crisp, and to-the-point content. Vine was, without a doubt, a game-changer in the ultra-short video space, until it was shut down.
Snapchat, on the other hand, is widely regarded as the pioneer of short, vertical videos in the West, with its Stories, Discover, and other features. Yet, it was unable to propel short videos as we know them today.
Instead, it was in China that a short-form video revolution was brewing, which became a global phenomenon in the last decade.
Short-Form Video Revolution
China has always been at the forefront of innovation in the areas such as applied AI and video creation tools, among others. In fact, short-form video platforms first emerged in China, in 2012, focusing on 15 to 60 seconds of talent set to popular music. And, by 2015, Kuaishou, one of the short-video platforms in China, had skyrocketed to over 10 million daily active users.
What’s more? Another Chinese short-video platform, backed by 5Y Capital, became the first app from China to top the US app store charts and make an impact in that market.
Before the rest of the world woke up to this content revolution, the Chinese platforms had already invested huge sums of monies into scaling these platforms, amplifying the short-video revolution. Therefore, it is not surprising that the world's largest short-video platform owners, Bytedance and Kuaishou, are Chinese.
Cut to 2020, Chinese short-video platforms had raced ahead. Unlike the initial music-centred dances and lip-syncing, the content on these platforms is becoming increasingly diverse, with skits, opinions, short comedy, and more. Other social platforms, in the meantime, are barely keeping up with, let alone moving ahead of, the Chinese short-video platforms. The fact remains that Chinese short-video platforms are likely to continue to dominate this space with their pace of innovation.
India and Short-Form Video
The Indian short video market has experienced massive growth in the last two to three years. According to a report by Bain & Company, the market has grown 3.5 times in user base and 12 times in total time by all users on short-video platforms.
Following the ban on Chinese short-video apps in India, the market has been flooded with several short-form video platforms, each vying for a piece of this pie. While some of these are backed by large, existing players who are capable of making a significant investment, some are much smaller, but all looking to replicate the success of the banned Chinese platforms. However, to create an identity, Indian short-video players must offer differentiation in product and content, going beyond the state of 2020 and TikTok-style content alone.
Today, from entertainment to commerce, edutainment to customer service, and even enterprise discussions, short videos are making inroads everywhere. They are, undeniably, the medium of the future, and no one can afford to miss this train.
(This article is originally written by Vidya Narayanan who is the Co-Founder & CEO of Rizzle. Views expressed in the article are of the author. The liability for the article solely rests with the author. The content has not been verified by the India TV channel and IndiaTVNews.com)
