TikTok, the social media site that made short-form video a global hit, is expanding into YouTube’s long-form video sector.

On Tuesday, social media strategist Matt Navarra shared a snapshot of TikTok testing the option for users to upload 30-minute movies to the app.

“TikTok is coming for your long-form YouTube videos,” Navarra wrote on Threads after discovering the new upload time in the beta version of the video-sharing software.

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While 30-minute uploads may appear out of place for TikTok, which inspired every major social media site to adopt and build its own short-form video features, including YouTube’s Shorts feature, the firm has been increasing upload lengths for years.

The original TikTok feed allowed for 15-second snippets, which could be stretched to a minute.

From then, the business increased upload times to 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes in March 2022. In an effort to raise ad revenue and introduce a more diversified variety of videos.

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TikTok added the ability for 15-minute-long uploads in October 2023. Cementing its decision to enter the YouTube space while following in the footsteps of its Chinese doppelganger app Douyin, which increased its upload limit to 30 minutes in 2022.

TikTok is aiming to develop a reliable monetization approach.

YouTube pays creators a portion of the revenue generated by adverts that appear within each original clip. Longer uploads provide bigger payments, keeping producers invested in the site.

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However, TikTok does not support pre- and mid-roll ad styles for shorter films.

TikTok is signaling to producers that it will pay them more for their work by increasing the duration of videos.

TikTok now supports 30-minute films as well as other sorts of material, such as whole episodes of TV shows, which may be shown and shared across the platform. The app has previously experimented with presenting whole episodes of shows, but they were divided into several pieces.

The new upload time may encourage networks to share more material on the platform.

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