YouTube 's new short-form video service, YouTube Shorts, will soon be available in over 100 countries after being trialed in selected markets. It has been developed as a competitor for the popular TikTok platform and was first released in India for beta testing earlier this year where its uptake tripled over several months. YouTube is essentially playing catch-up with its popular TikTok competitor but also aims to integrate its Shorts offering with the wider YouTube platform as a key method for attracting new users and expanding its reach.

YouTube Shorts

The YouTube Shorts service provides functions for producing short video content that are very similar to its TikTok competitor. It allows users to record, edit and share video content that can be up to 60 seconds in length and also allows popular music to be included. Users have access to a range of tools that allow them to start and stop recording with a single tap with the service offering a small number of editing features. These include controls that allow the audio to be sped up or slowed down, a countdown timer, the ability to insert text overlays at chosen points and the ability to adjust colors.

TikTok Comparison

While YouTube shorts offers a convenient tool for choosing music to be used in the video it does not have the automatic sound synchronization feature of TikTok which made the app more accessible and popular with first-time users. In addition, YouTube's offering lacks the wide catalog of special effects that TikTok offers - such as augmented reality functions and the ability to use a green-screen. YouTube Shorts, like Instagram Reels and other competitors, are seeking to make the features of TikTok available to users that want to create and publish short video content on their social media platforms.

The US Commerce Department has announced that it is rescinding a decision made to place Chinese owned TikTok and WeChat on a list of applications that were prohibited from transactions by US citizens. The ban was issued in September of last year by the Trump administration in a bid to stop any additional downloads of the apps.

Presidential Executive Orders

President Joe Biden recently withdrew a number of executive orders by the previous president that sought to block any new downloads of the apps which are owned by the Chinese company Tencent and ordered the Commerce Department to conduct a review of any security concerns posed by these and other Chinese-made apps. The previous administration had established the so-called 'TikTok ban' in response to concerns about data being gathered on US citizens by China and also sought to ban transactions with other apps, including WeChat, which would have effectively banned their use in the US. WeChat has reportedly been downloaded by more than 19 million users in the US and has become a widely used platform for payments, services and games. Biden's new executive order revokes the bans against WeChat and TikTok as well as against another eight communication and financial software applications.

While Biden's executive order rescinded the bans, it nonetheless directed the Commerce Department to continue monitoring applications like TikTok to determine whether they could impact US national security. It also ordered the department to present recommendations within 120 days that would help to protect US data acquired or made available to companies controlled by other foreign adversaries.

National Security Concerns

TikTok remains one of the world's most popular social media apps and China's foreign ministry welcomed the move as a positive move urging the US to respect the free market and not to use so-called national security concerns to suppress China's tech industry. The effort by the Trump administration to effectively ban various Chinese apps had led to numerous legal challenges which had the effect of heightening tensions between the two countries. Last year a US district court judge granted a temporary injunction to TikTok that blocked the effort to ban downloading the app. At the time Trump had approved a bid by US tech company Oracle (backed by Walmart) to purchase TikTok but the move failed to gain approval from China's regulators. The app is believed to have more than 1 billion users world wide and is particularly popular with younger users.

If you are a tik tok influencer, you might be getting and having the best moments of your life by making a living through creativity and engagement. Tik Tok is among the fast-growing platforms that easily allow people to make money by the number of followers and content. New people to the platform and have gathered enough followers and have engaging content; it is your time to think about how you can earn your living. You can start by estimating how much you can make through the new TikTok money calculator; while most people get confused for their first time to find the correct calculations for their earnings, here is what you need to know about this device:

What is the new TikTok money calcualtor?

This should be the first question that clicks your mind once you think of the device and what you want to get from it; you can answer this if you know what the device is; it can help you calculate your potential earnings derived from every profile that is on your platform. You should know that the calculator is not official, but it is offered by the app, which means it wasn't developed or getting any endorsement from tik tok. It does not give you an exact amount you will earn but gives you an estimation of what you will make from your content.

How does it work?

If you already have the tik tok extension, this will be a simple thing to do; you should start by entering your profile's username, which you intend to calculate, remember it is the username you use but not the official name. After entering the name, you should click on the calculate option, and automatically the extension will calculate and provide the information concerning your earnings and engagements. You should know that the calculations are done differently based on the various information and data available on the user's profile. The necessary details to conclude on the earnings are followers, average comments, score, engagements, shares, and likes. With all this information, the tool will provide you with the estimated earnings per video.

TikTok, the social media app owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is facing a UK lawsuit that could see it forced to pay damages of billions of pounds if it is successful. The lawsuit, brought by legal firm Scott and Scott and backed by a former British children's commissioner, claims that the company collects a huge range of children's personal information when they use the app. As well as harvesting their pictures and videos, it is claimed the app also collects children's phone numbers, specific location details and biometric data which it then sells to third parties for profit.

British Children Data Harvested

Parents and children are likely to be shocked by the revelations, as well as privacy regulators, since the app is used by a huge number of teenagers. According to the UKs media regulator OfCom, it is estimated that almost 45% of children aged between 8 and 12 use the app which represents about 3.5 million children in the UK alone and is likely to be potentially millions more across Europe as a whole.

The lawsuit claims that children's personal information was harvested without explicit consent being gained (which, in the case of children under the age of 18, would need to come from an adult) and constitutes a serious breach of both UK and EU privacy provisions, according to one of the lawyers acting for the plaintiffs in the case.

TikTok Blocked

This is not the first time that the ByteDance's data protection policies have been challenged and Tiktok sued. In 2019 the US Federal Trade Commission levied a record fine of $5.7 million against the company for similar offences of illegally gathering children's personal information. It has also come under scrutiny in India where it was temporarily banned and finally blocked completely from the country. TikTok is also under investigation by the UK Information Commissioner's Office for whether it complies with the UK's data protection rules and whether it protects children's right to data privacy with a report expected later in the year.

TikTok claims that it is only intended for users over the age of 13 but it is claimed that the app is being used by much younger children since all they need to do is enter an older age as there is no additional checking performed by the app. Lawyers are seeking thousands of pounds of compensation for each child, seeking that the app meet its user age requirements as well as demanding that the company provide full transparency about the data it collects and the purposes it is used for.

Social networking has been made easier with the emergence of various media platforms such as TikTok. TikTok is currently a global app that allows people to record and share short videos about any topic. Just like any other social media platform, TikTok provides a wide range of content and new leads that one can use to advance a career.

Trend on TikTok that Provides Career Advice

TikTok is now accelerating from just fulfilling entertainment needs to providing career guidance and advice. #CareerAdvice is now a growing trend on TikTok. We have various individuals now coming on board to guide young job seekers on navigating their careers and maximizing their potential. Older individuals who wish to advance their careers or pursue new careers now have a home on TikTok.

Different Kinds of Videos you Can Find with A Job and Interview Advice

TikTok is now a popular social media platform that has attracted career coaches to make use of it. There exist various kinds of videos on career advice to choose from. These videos come with different titles that, upon identifying them, one can access job or interview advice. These titles might include making your resume stand out, writing a professional email, a guide on the first job interview, common interview questions, and many other titles.

Companies that are Finding New Workers from TikTok

Companies are now recruiting interns and workers through TikTok. For instance, various clothing brands often partner with TikTok to come up with a challenge where people post videos promoting a certain brand. Individuals with the most viewed videos get hired as brand agents. As individuals share content, Freelance companies can identify content creators on various topics. The creative industry is using TikTok to recruit different creative skills that could be nurtured for economic gains.

Some of the most Popular Channels with Job Advice

TikTok career advice has several popular channels created by career coaches who give job advice through short videos. For example, @j.t.odonell is one of the popular TikTok channels that offer job search tips, resumes, changing your career, among others. @youknowitjulian on TikTok is a channel that provides career development content such as tips on salary negotiation. Besides, @shadezahrai is also a popular channel that provides a guideline on interviews, among other career tips.

Developed and launched in 2016 by ByteDance, TikTok is a social media application that allows users to share short videos. In early 2020, TikTok gained massive popularity across the globe, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic that triggered the social isolation and lockdown policies. While this application was solely meant for entertainment at first, e-commerce sellers are now taking advantage of it to market their products. With that in mind, here's a look at some of the new TikTok's new features.

TikTok Product Links

This feature allows the seller to add a product link, which enables the users to click and view the products in the online shop. This way, TikTok sellers get to market their products on this platform without necessarily displaying them.

Short Video Displays

Apart from adding a link to your products, TikTok also allows you to display your products in form of short videos. Here, you can demonstrate the actual working of the product and get people interested in purchasing it.

Livestreamed Shopping

This feature allows brands and influencers to host shopping livestreams, enabling viewers to view products and make in-app purchases in real-time. The TV shopping channel feature is suitable for brands and influencers that command a massive fan following.

TikTok's Competitors

Currently, TikTok is competing with numerous other ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, Wix, Square online, BigCommerce, and Squarespace. Despite their different business models, these platforms target virtually the same audience, meaning the competition in this space is cutthroat.

TikTok Partnership With Shopify

In October 2020, TikTok announced a partnership with Shopify that would allow at least 1 million merchants to market and sell their products through video ads. So far, the TikTok for Business feature enables ecommerce entrepreneurs to create and run campaigns on TikTok and engage their online communities. Beyond advertising their offerings on TikTok, merchants can also sell their offerings on the platform, and therefore, earn money on the platform.

While everyone else seems to be slumbering through the pandemic, TikTok seems intent on building a mighty digital empire. On all fronts, TikTok seems to be making deals and sewing up talent and sponsorships.

TikTok Business Partners

There seems to be a sense of real urgency in their efforts to embed themselves deeply into the social fabric of the nation. This could of course just be intelligent business practices, but it may also perhaps be fueled by TikTok's near-death experience at the hands of Donald Trump. If the matter ever comes up again, they apparently want plenty of native allies and business partners available to speak on their behalf.

The company has recently been expanding hard into partnerships with major sports leagues. The most recently announced deal comes via twin Major League Soccer franchises. The Portland Timbers of the men's league and the Portland Thorns of the women's bracket have agreed to long-term sponsorship deals with TikTok which will include the addition of the well-known TikTok logo on the jersey sleeves of their upcoming 2021 season. While the company will not own the coveted front of the jersey, they are nevertheless making their mark. Few doubt that this is just the opening move in a long term strategy to make the company ubiquitous, especially among the younger generation.

Other recent sports-oriented moves are built around hosting live events for the increasingly popular UFC and, over in Europe, sponsoring the 2020 EUFA Football Tournament. All of these efforts show their eagerness to build a lifestyle brand that is much larger than just the original short-form video platform. What they clearly have in mind is an idealized user who has interests in the many things that TikTok is now partnering up with.

Long-Form Version of Tiktok

With significant recent acquisitions being booked in both the sports and music fields, one has to wonder what will come next on the corporate platter of delicacies? In particular, the many sports moves suggest that there are plans for a long-form version of TikTok on the horizon. Showing snippets of UFC or MLS action is nice highlight reel stuff, but the big money is still found in broadcasting the games themselves.

For a very long time there has been a bit of a standoff between musicians and their legions of fans who'd like nothing better than to use a bit of their favorite song in their own video productions. Rights have been hard to secure and prohibitively priced to the point where most content creators just don't try obtaining them or go guerrilla and hope they don't get caught for a long time. That logjam seems to finally be breaking loose and the dammed-up river of creative content is about to become a torrent.

TikTok Universal Music Group Agreement

Recently, content platform TikTok has announced an agreement with music rights management behemoth Universal Music Group that permits TikTok users to access all, repeat: all, of UMGs content. This follows on the heels of several other agreements with firms such as Sony and Warner. Unlike notoriously-restrictive YouTube, TikTok has apparently decided to partner up with its content providers rather than rigorously police them for rights violations where everybody ends up the loser.

TikTok Revenue

Musicians can now get an extra stream of revenue for their work. Content providers now have access to high-quality material to enhance the production qualities of their output, and the large corporate entities which stand on both sides of the divide now have a perfect win-win situation for their own bottom lines.

Of course the devil is always in the details, but TikTok's aggressive pursuit of access to what appears to be all music everywhere signals that it wants to be the premier place for content creators worldwide. On the face of it, it seems that creators can now access these rights virtually automatically. How the TikTok Universal full catalog arrangement provides payment with the rights holders is not clear at the moment, but it appears that they are paying for the music rights on behalf of all their users and then getting repaid out of the profits generated from viral content.

The real question now is whether other content platforms will follow TikTok's example or are already doing so. With the near-simultaneous news that UMG has pulled access from TikTok competitor Triller, there is likely to be some significant deal-making action among other industry players in the near future. The possibility of bidding wars heating up cannot be discounted either if this proves to be a highly profitable move by TikTok.

Reddit recently announced its first major acquisition with purchase of Dubsmash, a TikTok-like social media site where users upload short-form videos. While the terms of the deal were not disclosed, Dubsmash recently raised $20.2 million from investors including Heartcore Capital, Lowercase Capital, Sunstone Life and Index Ventures among others.

From what has been publicly revealed about the deal, Dubsmash will continue to operate as a separate platform. The driver for the purchase is to integrate Dubsmash's video creation tools into Reddit which, while it has supported video uploads since 2017, has limited video editing tools with the videos posted on the site often hosted elsewhere.

All About Dubsmash

Dubsmash was launched in 2015 as a video app where users could lip-sync to popular music. It struggled in the first few years of its existence but in 2007 it pivoted to become a full social media platform and moved its operations from Berlin to Brooklyn. Since then it has seen increased popularity and now has the largest share of the US short-form video market aside from the leader TikTok, based on app installs. Reportedly Dubsmash also held talks with Facebook and Snap about a possible acquisition before the Reddit deal was inked.

About Reddit

Reddit was founded in 2005 in San Francisco and bought by Conde Nast the following year. In 2011 it was sold, though the parent company of Conde Nast, Advance Publications, retains a stake. Last year it raised some $300m in funding from range of investors, including Sequoia Capital and Andrew Horowitz, valuing it at over $3 billion. The company has 700 employees compared to Dubsmash's 12.

One of the distinguishing features of Dubsmash is that it has a large user base of Black and Latinx users who are credited as the main reason for the site's success. TikTok's highest profile stars are white and the New York times published an article earlier this year claiming dance moves by Black creators on the site were often appropriated by TikTok users without giving credit to the original creators which meant that they missed out on larger followings and brand deals as a result. Reddit said in a statement that it regarded the purchase of the company as a part of a greater effort on its part to be more inclusive - the company has faced criticism in the past for racism after allowing hate-speech to be hosted on the site.

Although first released in China for the Chinese market in 2016 as Douyin, TikTok quickly became a platform for entertainment around the world. By the end of 2020, it has launched the careers of thousands of personalities, many of whom are using the platform as a means to earn a living. In less than 36 months, TikToks millionaires have made some serious cash and are still doing so. Here are 7 of its top earners.

1. Spencer X

Earnings: $1.2 million
Spencer Polanco Knight, better known as Spencer X, initially promoted his beatboxing skills through YouTube, later combining his YT earnings with sponsorships to become a TikTok millionaire by the age of 28. After dropping out of college, Spencer X started his beatboxing career busking, and was even part of a bluegrass group. His popularity as a beatbox artist grew when he began posting on YouTube and on TikTok in 2019.

2. Michael Le

Earnings: $1.2 million

Michael Le, better known as JustMaiko was one of the pioneer content creators on Tik Tok, back when it was known as Musical.ly. Le is a dancer and choreographer who offers multiple posts on his Tik Tok account daily for his nearly 5 million followers. Other than creating dance and challenge videos, Le also earns through paid partnerships using Instagram and merchandise sales with his Shluv clothing line.

3. Josh Richards

Earnings: $2.5 million

Josh Richards is a Canadian Tik Tok star who is also currently the highest-paid male content creator on the platform. Richards provides content on Tik Tok, YouTube, and Instagram where he posts video clips of his performances. He co-founded Ani Energy and TalentX Entertainment and is the Chief Strategy Officer of Triller. He has accumulated north of 20 million followers on the TikTok application.

4. Loren Gray

Earnings: $4 million

Loren Gray is another Tik Tok pioneer - that is, she was on the platform back when it was known as Musical.ly. She started posting when she was just a 6th grader. These days, Gray is focused on her music career which she began promoting by creating content and building her TikTok followers. By the middle of 2020, she had nearly 50 million followers on the platform.