YouTube begins testing for TikTok rival

YouTube on Monday began testing a TikTok rival in India, saying it would refine its short video format and roll it out in more countries in coming months.

YouTube Shorts made its debut as TikTok pursues a partnership with Oracle that it hopes will spare it from being shutdown in the US by President Donald Trump.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday confirmed a bid from Oracle concerning TikTok’s American operations after the video-sharing app’s parent ByteDance rejected a proposal from Microsoft.

But it remained unclear whether the venture would pass muster with Washington regulators.

“Shorts is a new shortform video experience for creators and artists who want to shoot short, catchy videos using nothing but their mobile phones,” YouTube vice-president of product management Chris Jaffe said in a blog.

“Over the next few days in India, we’re launching an early beta of Shorts with a handful of new creation tools to test this out.”