How Meta, TikTok and Spotify Can Snatch YouTube’s Crown

YouTube may be enjoying its reign as the king of video on both mobile and TV screens, but besting YouTube isn’t necessarily an impossible feat.

As the Information reported in late June, both Meta and TikTok are apparently working on TV apps of their own. Meta wants to create a TV platform for Reels, likely part of its recent effort to standardize its short-form video format across IG and FB under the “Reels” label.

TikTok’s plan, meanwhile, is more elaborate than a port of its phone app (which it quietly launched in 2021 and shut down this year to little fanfare). The company reportedly wants to reach older viewers with the app, which may include higher-budget, made-for-TV content. The report lines up with TikTok’s publicly stated ambitions of conquering the living room at Cannes Lions in June.

If Meta’s wealth of Reels content can bring viewers to the small screen, its combined tally of Facebook and Instagram monthly active users could potentially give YouTube some competition. But users don’t necessarily translate to views, especially when neither Meta nor TikTok has prioritized video creation for nearly as long as UGC pioneer YouTube.

Precedent isn’t on Meta and TikTok’s side, either. Even entertainment giants like Netflix and Disney can barely keep up with YouTube in the race for people’s TV watching time. YouTube hasn’t left the top spot as most-watched media distributor on American TV screens since February then, per Nielsen Gauge data, when CEO Neal Mohan declared it the “new television.”

And that’s not to mention that YouTube Shorts is dominating the short-form world, with Mohan reporting at Cannes Lions that Shorts now averages 200 billion daily views (though that might also be partly thanks to the updated view count system). To add more pressure, YouTube also recently overhauled its influencer marketing tools, essentially mirroring Instagram’s services.

But maybe the play here isn’t to become “new TV” but to fill gaps left by YouTube in its pursuit to SVODify its TV presence and prepare its biggest creators for high-production, even Emmy-worthy, output. In other words, Meta and TikTok shouldn’t even bother with long-form video — which is not only YouTube’s wheelhouse but also is treading in SVOD territory — and lean into the short-form formats users already know.

Meta currently doesn’t seem interested in original video anyway, perhaps because it already tried with the oft-forgotten Facebook Watch. TikTok, on the other hand, could apply its interest in microdramas to its TV app efforts. VIP+ reported in April on how TikTok commissioned a white paper into the potential of microdramas in international markets, which found that U.S. TikTok users were particularly primed to become microdrama fans.

Even if microdramas aren’t currently made by TikTok, their regular virality on the app have them closely associated with TikTok for the casual fans or passing viewers. (TikTok’s parent company ByteDance owns microdrama app Hongguo.)

Just as how the microdrama industry carved a niche for itself outside of competing with long-form platforms, perhaps TikTok could do the same on TV. Of course, whether or not viewers would watch microdramas when you take away one of the genre’s core traits — being made to watch vertically on your phone — is unclear.

But these weren’t the only recent challenges aimed at YouTube. A day after the Information report, the Ankler published a leaked deck from Spotify detailing its own hard push into video. The move is seemingly building off of its plan to expand its Partner Program and audience development tools initially launched for video podcasters to video creators of all stripes. (Its low-profile deal with creator-run streamer Nebula last summer, which ported a handful of creators’ videos over to Spotify, seems to have served as a proof of concept.)

That move makes sense considering YouTube handily won the video podcast race. The latest “Podcast Download” report from Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights confirms that Spotify did little to curb YouTube’s growing video podcast audience, which is currently averaging over 1 billion views per month.

Still, Spotify said last year it saw a 44% YoY increase in time spent watching videos on the app, and the leaked deck cited that over 300 million users (out of its 675+ million monthly active users) have streamed a video podcast, 70% of whom watched with said videos in the foreground. These stats have seemingly given Spotify the confidence to broaden its video horizons beyond just podcasts and court YouTubers into posting their videos directly on Spotify.

But perhaps learning from shelling out for podcast exclusivity deals that went nowhere, Spotify isn’t trying to drive creators away from YouTube. Instead, it’s positioning the platform as another income source for video creators and a tool for more effectively engaging with fans. Spotify also rolled out likes and comment sections for its podcasts last year, and it lets creators link directly to membership platforms like Patreon.

We’re already seeing some major YouTubers make the jump to Spotify — the Ankler pointed out how several YouTubers appear on the podcast charts even though their “podcasts” are just reuploaded YouTube videos. But Spotify’s video audience, while growing, is a fraction of YouTube’s base, making it harder to court larger creators who are content with the audience and payouts they get from YouTube. Still, as YouTube moves heavier into TV-caliber content, perhaps Spotify can find a video niche by catering to a “Goldilocks”-type of creator: not too small but not MrBeast big.

Another potential factor in Spotify’s favor: The Cumulus report also noted 72% of YouTube podcast consumers said they would switch platforms if a show were to become exclusive elsewhere. While Spotify probably isn’t aiming for exclusivity, the metric exposes the double-edge sword of YouTube’s model: YouTubers are independent creators, and viewers watch YouTube for them — not for YouTube.

There’s a chance Spotify & Co. could exploit that fact in their endeavors and become an alternate, maybe even sizable, TV destination. It would likely take more aggressive moves to outright topple the king of video, but if that is these companies’ ultimate goal, then they better not miss.