In an effort to bring more awareness to its platform, YouTube will take a page out of TikTok's book and begin watermarking YouTube Shorts content. The company will roll out watermarks for Shorts content downloaded from its Studio hub on desktop in the coming weeks and on mobile in the coming months.

TikTok has dominated short-form video for the past few years, forcing the competition to adapt. Instagram and YouTube have both tried to create a similar kind of environment with Reels and Shorts, respectively. The impact the service has had is undeniable, even more so when you see its videos being cross-posted on other platforms. TikTok has a feature that allows users to download videos from its platform as long as the creators allow it.

These videos are often watermarked with a TikTok logo. Due to the virality of some of these videos, it is not uncommon to see the watermarked videos on Instragam Reels and YouTube Shorts. While this is great for the audience because they get to enjoy content from another service, the watermark has turned into a sore spot, with Instagram even going as far as implementing an algorithm that will recognize watermarked videos so that it does not promote them on its platform.

By implementing a watermark, YouTube hopes its Shorts content will become a beacon for its platform when shared with other services. YouTube has invested quite a bit in Shorts, most recently, it has allowed creators on its platform to take existing content in their library, edit it, and upload their new creations to YouTube Shorts. While short-form videos are having a moment, not everyone is happy about it. Recently, Instagram released a new change to its feed, displaying full-screen images and videos.

The change didn’t go down well, as users complained, requiring Instagram’s CEO to address the issue. Eventually, the company would back-peddle the idea, reverting the feed back to its previous interface. It’s hard to tell how long short-form videos will stick around, but as we have seen in the past with Vine, it can be popular one day and disappear the next.

Source: YouTube

Via: Engadget