As other platforms experiment with vertical videos, which TikTok popularized, the Byte Dance-owned company is doing the opposite. It’s diving head-first into horizontal videos and encouraging creators to make longer content. 

TikTok will boost horizontal videos 

Content creators saw a prompt on the app that says videos longer than a minute will be boosted 72 hours after posting them. According to the prompt, the videos should be more than one minute long, in landscape format, original and not ads. Creators who have been on the platform for three months are eligible for this boost of views. 

TikTok has been encouraging creators to create long-form content. Their video upload limit went from sixty seconds to ten minutes. In 2023, it started to test 15-minute videos to select users. It didn’t stop there; the platform experimented with 30-minute videos just shortly after the 15-minute one. TikTok also launched a paywall program called Series to allow 20-minute exclusive videos that fans have to subscribe to. 

Will long-form content thrive on the platform? 

TikTok’s short-form vertical style has been emulated by other companies. However, despite being the top platform for that type of content, the company is dabbling in long-form content for longer watch time. 

Users are used to holding their phones upright to scroll through endless videos. Now, they can turn their phones sideways for horizontal content. It might take some time before users are adjusted to that kind of format, not to mention people are often on the app to watch short clips in short bursts. It seems like TikTok is trying to get into YouTube’s territory while other apps are trying to be TikTok. We have yet to see how this new format strives on the app and whether creators are paid enough to justify posting longer content on the platform.