TikTok Launches Test of ‘TikTok Stories,’ Which Vanish After 24 Hours

TikTok, the popular short-form video app that’s been widely copied by competing social platforms, may be about to return the favor by itself copying the “stories” vanishing-posts format.

The app, owned by Chinese internet giant ByteDance, has kicked off a small pilot test of TikTok Stories in various countries outside the U.S., a company rep said. Like “stories” on other services, TikTok Stories posts expire after a 24-hour period. It may not turn into a permanent feature on TikTok, the rep added.

“We’re always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience,” TikTok spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. “Currently we’re experimenting with ways to give creators additional formats to bring their creative ideas to life for the TikTok community.”

The ephemeral “stories” concept originated on Snapchat, and it was later copied by bigger rivals like Instagram and Facebook. (Twitter also latched onto the idea with Fleets, but it shut the feature down this week after low usage.)

At the same time, TikTok has faced a raft copycats to its own short-form social video. Those include Instagram Reels, Snapchat Spotlight and YouTube Shorts. This week, YouTube kicked off a monetization program for Shorts, under which it says it will pay creators up to $10,000 per month out of a $100 million creator fund.

:story: Variety