YouTube will begin testing its answer to TikTok in the US starting next month

• YouTube will begin testing Shorts in the US next month.
• The TikTok-rivaling feature lets users snap and upload videos of 15 seconds or less.
• Google has been beta testing the feature in India, where TikTok is currently banned.

YouTube says it will begin testing Shorts, its TikTok-rivaling feature for shorter-length videos, in the US next month.

The company announced on Wednesday that a beta of Shorts will appear for users in March. A Google spokeswoman confirmed the beta will be available to everyone, but would not comment on when the feature might graduate to a full release.

YouTube Shorts lets users snap and upload videos of 15 seconds or less. Google began beta-testing the feature in India last September, and said in January that the feature was getting 3.5 billion views a day.

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YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki also announced last month that YouTube would look to expand Shorts to other parts of the world this year.

The success of Shorts in India has proven an appetite for Google's take on short-form video, but the US could prove a tougher market to crack.

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, was banned in India last June, with the government citing national security concerns. That gave Google a perfect opportunity to pounce.

Despite efforts by the Trump administration to ban TikTok in the US, the app is still thriving with more than 100 million users in the country.

TikTok isn't YouTube's only competition, either. Facebook also has a short-form video feature for Instagram named Reels.

Unlike TikTok, however, neither Instagram Reels nor YouTube Shorts have standalone apps, but are baked into the interface.

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