China’s short video apps are expanding into longer formats, betting that people want their 15 minutes of social media fame

With fierce competition in the Chinese short video market, platforms like Kuaishou and Douyin are betting that expanding to longer form videos will enable them to hold on to more eyeballs in the attention economy, and ignite the next social media craze among the country

“In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” These words, associated with the late artist Andy Warhol, will be put to the test by popular Chinese short video apps Kuaishou and Douyin, which are testing longer-form videos of up to – yes, 15 minutes – after starting a worldwide craze for short-form videos.

On the Douyin platform operated by Beijing-based Bytedance, which also runs TikTok, some users with large fan bases have been able to upload 15-minute long videos since June. Starting this month, some Kuaishou users have been able to upload videos that run as long as 10 minutes.