Tencent-backed short video app Kuaishou is now testing a function that allows some of its users to post videos lasting up to 10 minutes, 36Kr reports.
Previously, the app only hosted videos lasting no longer than 57 seconds. Along with similar apps like TikTok, it formed what became known as the short-video app genre. But recently there’s been a move by most of the major short-video apps to allow longer video content, too.
An advantage is that it allows more variety of content, such as vlogs and mini-dramas, an increasingly popular form of video entertainment in China.
Kuaishou declined to comment on the testing and did not provide any further details when contacted by KrAsia.
ByteDance’s Douyin, which is the Chinese version of TikTok, allowed its users to post 15-minute videos while Baidu’s short video app Haokan has also already enabled 5-minute videos.
The adding of longer videos may also help to attract a wider audience, say, stealing some from video streaming sites such as Baidu’s iQiyi, Tencent Video and Alibaba’s Youku, which have respectively, 543 million, 540 million, and 413 million monthly users.
Kuaishou has not officially released its monthly active user count, but it did say that its daily active users have exceeded 200 million.
The wider audience and longer video play times may help Kuaishou achieve its ad sales goal of RMB 15 billion (USD 2.18 billion) for 2019.