YouTube announced some fairly substantial updates to YouTube Live in a bid to draw more users to the platform. The move comes as TikTok reportedly eyes a deal with the U.S. that could substantially alter the platform for U.S. users.
YouTube Looks To Court More Livestreamers With New Updates
During a recent "Made On YouTube" event, the platform announced some significant changes that seem geared towards bringing more livestreamers to the platform. Perhaps the most direct example of YouTube looking to court streamers from social platforms is the new ability to stream in horizontal and vertical formats at the same time.
This new feature will also unify the livestreaming experience with one common chat room. Before the change, viewers would experience a slightly different stream and chat room depending on how they watched. The feature hasn't fully rolled out to all users, though. YouTube expects it to be widely available in the coming months.
Monetization Updates
The company also announced some new monetization features, including one that will allow livestreamers to switch between general and membership-only streams during the same stream. This feature may allow streamers to incentivize people to become members during a free general stream and then immediately reward them with exclusive content by switching over.
The platform says ads will also expand to mobile formats, which will also increase a streamer's ad-based revenue. Previously, ads only showed up on the horizontal feeds of livestreams on desktop and TV.
Other Updates
Other new features announced at the event include a new tool for repurposing streams and a new way to do live reactions. YouTube says they'll be rolling out a feature that helps take engaging moments from your livestream and turn them into Shorts you can share to your feed.
We've often talked about how finding ways to repurpose and crosspost your content is one of the best ways to grow your online brand. Currently this only comes when streaming on mobile, but hopefully that feature will be expanded to include streams utilizing the new horizontal/vertical multi-stream feature.
Lastly, YouTube is introducing a new way to go live as a "reaction stream" to other content on the platform. This means creators will be able to show other content currently happening on the platform but do their own stream around it (particularly without copyright concerns).
Potential TikTok Deal In Sight — But With Questions
The TikTok ban has once again, to the surprise of no one, been delayed. What makes this time a little different, though, is we now have reliable information about the app's future in the U.S.
If a reported deal gets approved by China, a consortium of U.S.-based investors would own a new company the develops a U.S. version of TikTok. Those investors include some of President Trump's friends and donors, such as Oracle's Larry Ellison (who was briefly crowned the wealthiest man in the world recently before losing the title to Elon Musk) and Netscape founder Marc Andreessen.
This group of investors would own 80 percent of the new U.S. version of TikTok, while Chinese company Bytedance would own the remaining 20 percent. The company would license "a version" of the TikTok algorithm to the new app. Users would still need to delete their current version of the app and download the new one, which would also be unavailable to overseas users. Also, the Trump administration would get to appoint a board member to the company (for some reason).
Much of this deal was reportedly finalized in April prior to Trump's massive tariff spree, but delayed until now to understand the ramifications of those policies.
Will U.S. Users Make The Move?
This version of TikTok will ultimately look similar to the app most people know, but it will ultimately be very different. For starters, it will have a fraction of the users. Even if all 170 million U.S.-based TikTok users move to the new app, it will only be available in America, cutting out roughly 1.4 billion other users on the app.
Additionally, even though the new app will license "a version" of the TikTok algorithm that made the platform so successful, it will need to be retrained on new user data. This means it will probably not look or feel anything like the version you currently have.
In other words — the only thing that can actually preserve TikTok as we know it remains a repeal on the current law. Otherwise, be prepared for big changes in some form or fashion.