The Top 5 Short-Form Video Content Platforms

Here at FreshCut, we know that users love short-form video content. We sure do ourselves! Short-form content seems to be everywhere these days and its popularity among users is exploding. This is evidenced by large incumbent social media companies making a huge push to short-form video and short-form content.

Starting with Vine in 2013 (RIP, a favorite of ours), short-form video as a format has grown immensely in size to become the most popular form or content type in social media.

With so many different platforms to choose from, we thought it would be helpful to list and breakdown the Top 5.

FreshCut

What kind of blog would this be if we didn’t mention ourselves which also happens to be our very favorite short-form content platform?

FreshCut is the Home of Gaming’s Best Moments - one place for gaming fans and gaming content creators. In fact, FreshCut is the only short-form content platform exclusively focused on providing the best and freshest gaming content.

FreshCut offers innovative features for a superior creator-fan engagement experience including curated playlists, creator tipping, and an endless scroll of gaming focused content. Creators keep 90% of all tips, the best rate on the market for a short-form content platform.

If you’re a gaming fan or gaming creator, FreshCut is the place to be.

TikTok

We can’t lie - TikTok is arguably the most popular platform for short-form content and short-form video. Armed by its powerful recommendation algorithm and endless For You feed, TikTok is a guaranteed addictive time sink for any user.

In addition to being a short-form content platform, TikTok offers the chance for anyone to become a content creator with in-app video clip editing tools and features such as AR, music, text, and sound effects.

First launched in China in 2017, TikTok has gained huge popularity around the world, first as a music and dance driven virality platform, and now as the de facto go-to destination for short-form video content.

YouTube Shorts

YouTube has long been the internet’s home of user generated video content and the go-to website for on-demand long-form video. With the rise in popularity of short-form content, it should come at no surprise that YouTube would want to launch an accompanying product. In come YouTube Shorts!

YouTube Shorts is the name of YouTube’s short-form video feature. You can find YouTube Shorts on the YouTube website or on a tab in the YouTube mobile app.

YouTube Shorts is similar to YouTube in many respects, except that the video clips are a maximum of 60 seconds in length and appear in an endless feed of clips - similar to TikTok’s For You page or Instagram Reel’s Explore feed. As a user, this feed shows you short-form videos based on your past YouTube searches or viewing history. As a YouTube Shorts creator, this feed allows you to go viral. For more information on how to go viral on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, or other short-form platforms, see our post here!

Instagram Reels

Since being acquired by Facebook in 2012, Instagram has grown to become the go-to mobile content platform for sharing your pictures and videos with your friends. Instagram Reels, Instagram’s short-form video focused feature, is an evolution of that.

Similar to TikTok and YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels allows users to upload 90-second or less clips and edit them in-app with audio, music, text, and AR editing features. You can share your Reels with your Instagram followers or the broader Instagram community (if your account is public).

The Instagram Reels Explore feed is very similar to TikTok’s For You feed, where an algorithm serves you tailored video content based on who you follow and your past likes.

Snapchat Spotlight

While you might think of Instagram as the place to go to see your friends’ stories, we should never forget that Snapchat was the original creator of the story feature. Snapchat first gained popularity through its feature to send disappearing pictures and messages to your friends. Years later, Snapchat remains popular thanks to its camera and augmented reality features.

Snapchat Spotlight is Snapchat’s equivalent of TikTok or Instagram Reels. It’s a platform for user-generated short-form content. Like the other platforms listed above, users can create videos (60 seconds or less) and then edit them with captions, music, lenses, and AR features.

SnapChat Spotlight exists as a separate tab in the Snapchat app.

Conclusion

Short-form video and short-form content is the fastest growing segment of social media. More and more companies, brands, creators, and users are creating and sharing short-form content across multiple different platforms. We hope this blog post has given you a better understanding of the short-form landscape and of the best short-form content platforms.

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