YouTube is the most popular platform for non-TV video content in the US, with 65% of the country’s short-form video viewers using the service to watch user-generated content, video game livestreams, and the like.

On today's episode, we discuss five new bills that aim to limit Big Tech, whether short-form audio is next, Google's fine over its treatment of news publishers, why we buy what we buy, what to make of Disney+ subscriber growth hitting the brakes, how the world gets its caffeine, and more. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer senior analysts Sara M. Watson and Jasmine Enberg and analyst at Insider Intelligence Blake Droesch.

The short-video landscape is bigger than just TikTok. Marketers must develop a strategy to make the most of this form of marketing across multiple venues.

User-generated short videos are all over the internet, from TikTok to Instagram Reels to Triller, and the marketing opportunities are exploding. Here’s how the main venues compare across usage, paid advertising, organic and influencer marketing, and commerce.

The major social platforms hit the ground running in 2021, making substantial investments into many of today’s top social trends: audio, influencers, and short video, to name a few.

Stories are hardly a new social media format—they are nearly 8 years old on Snapchat and almost 5 on Instagram. But they are still heavily used for social media marketing, even as short-video platforms like TikTok have taken off.

Attack of the clones: Now that most major social platforms have a TikTok-like feature, each is exploring different ways to use short-form video to further their longer-term goals.

Before brands embark on short-video marketing, one of their key considerations should be the pros and cons of user-generated content (UGC). Marketers have had to learn to be comfortable with showing their brand messages in the midst of UGC on social media—and that’s been harder than ever, thanks to the recent rise in negativity and misinformation on some platforms. But to excel in the short-video format, especially on TikTok, marketers must also be willing to tap ordinary users for inspiration, participation, and viral distribution.

For shoe retailer DSW, TikTok is a place to test, learn, and have fun. In this excerpt from our new report, "Marketing in the Short-Video Landscape," Maria Wollenburg, DSW’s manager of social media and content, shares what the company has done on the social platform and what was learned in the eight months since launching its first TikTok paid ad campaign.

We estimate that one in four US internet users will use TikTok this year, and adult users will spend almost 32 minutes per day on average with the short-video app. Evan Horowitz, co-founder and CEO of creative agency Movers + Shakers, joins eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Nicole Perrin to discuss TikTok's ad products, how advertisers are using the app to build brand equity, and the need to tailor social creative to make sense for each platform.

TikTok has become well known for two things: short-form video, and the algorithm driving its time-sucking For You feed. Getting users to engage with still-image product catalogs may be a leap, but it’s one chance TikTok needs to take to keep up with competitors. How does TikTok’s Shopping tab stack up against Instagram’s Shop feature?

The rest of the world is waking up to the potential of shoppable livestreams, but it’s old news to China’s short-form video players and ecommerce platforms. Short-video leaders Douyin (TikTok’s sister app) and Kuaishou (known outside of China as Kwai) have been expanding their social commerce operations, not just to sell products, but to provide services and other forms of content as well.

With short-form video on the rise, livestreaming can keep users engaged over longer periods of time. The rise of TikTok, Instagram Reels, Snapchat’s Spotlight, and other forms of short-form video is a stark contrast to livestreams, which are often much longer. While both formats have uses for marketers, livestreaming gives brands more time to speak about products in-depth. Cons:. Live means live.

Emphasis on new content: TikTok’s hold over short video bleeds onto other platforms, and they're looking to creator funds to generate new content. Scroll through YouTube Shorts and you’ll see that many videos are beset with watermarks from TikTok or other short-form video services.

As WeChat enters its second decade, Allen Zhang Xiaolong, chief architect of the super app, pledged at an annual conference to make videos its cornerstone in the coming years. More specifically, Zhang spotlighted Channels, its short-form video feature, and a more seamless user experience with official accounts and miniprograms (lightweight apps within WeChat that require minimal downloading and disappear after use).

eMarketer research analyst Mariel Soto Reyes and principal analysts at Insider Intelligence Mark Dolliver and Jeremy Goldman discuss the future of short-form video, HBO Max's release structure experiment, a new service to streamline streaming, how the pandemic affected computer usage, why Apple wants in on cars, what actually happens when you experience déjà vu, and more.

That’s not surprising given the high adoption of short-form video sites and the popularity of livestreaming in the country. Subscription OTT video service user growth in particular saw a spike in 2020, exceeding 1.5 billion users. This number will pass 2 billion in 2024.

TikTok, the Chinese short-video app, is taking off in the US, India and elsewhere. It offers many unique marketing opportunities, such as the Hashtag Challenge, but marketers should take note of some risks.

But they’re also not as flashy as the racehorse, short-form video. In our annual social media trends report, published in January, we predicted that Stories would have to evolve to stay relevant in a sea of social video. We expected that short videos on TikTok or Instagram’s Reels would entice users away from tapping through Stories and could divert influencers’ attention as well.

The news: Square partnered with TikTok to let its merchants promote and sell through the short-form video app, which recently hit 1 billion monthly active users, per a press release. TikTok for Business users can set up free Square Online stores. Square Sellers can sync their store catalogs to TikTok in dedicated shopping tabs on their profiles.

According to Digiday, products are available for purchase through short videos, livestream sessions, and listings on the brand’s homepages. Marketer Takeaway: Short video and livestreaming commerce are already big business in China, and given TikTok’s link to China, it’s no surprise the app is working on incorporating those features.