The Sora-TikTok U.S. era of short-form video

For starters, there’s the question of TikTok U.S’s ability to effectively recreate the hallowed For You Page algorithm. And then carving the current global TikTok into a U.S.-only version risks constraining the app’s effectiveness at drawing audiences’ — and by extension, advertisers’ — attentions. 

“If you literally only have a tiny portion of that [global audience] with 170 million users [in the U.S.], you’ve already got a much, much smaller pool of content to work with to build that algorithm out. So in that sense, there’s going to be changes regardless,” said Digiday platforms reporter Krystal Scanlon, who joined the Digiday Podcast to discuss the state of the short-form video market.

Adding to the changes surrounding TikTok U.S. are the newest entrants to the short-form video market: AI-generated feeds in the form of OpenAI’s Sora and Meta’s Vibes. Sora especially has already rocketed to the top of Apple’s App Store and drawn all kinds of intrigue. Advertisers, however, have been somewhat more muted in their interest. That’s owed, in large part, to the fact that ads are absent from the invite-only app. But there are also heightened brand safety concerns when it comes to a platform that can create any content imaginable — including the unimaginable.

“It depends how risky a brand is prepared to be,” said Scanlon. “Because when you have AI content, there’s a whole new facet of concerns or questions or whether it’s brand safety or brand suitability and depending on how conservative or how risky a brand’s willing to play it.”

Of course, if Sora accrues a critical mass of users, it’ll only be a matter of time until advertisers are barking down its door. “It doesn’t matter what scenario an app may be in, if the eyeballs are there, marketers aren’t really far behind,” Scanlon said.

Here are a few highlights from the conversation, which have been edited for length and clarity.

Advertisers’ differing TikTok outlooks

Some people are definitely still completely in denial that [TikTok will be carved up into a U.S.-only version]. But some are playing quite a cautious approach in the sense of, while it is in the stance that it is, they’ll stay where it is because the performance is great. Ads are performing great. They can’t fault it in that regard. The moment that there is some form of transition, no one knows how that transition is going to play out.

Sora’s social engineering

Apparently, when you’ve got your [Sora invite] code and then you managed to get in, the first thing it asks you to do is to create your own Cameo. It kind of gives me BeReal vibes. Because to be able to actually use it, you have to go in and partake in it. Otherwise you can’t just watch other people’s [videos]. Clearly, that’s the social element they’re trying to bring into it.

The vibe on Vibes

When I was even scrolling through Meta Vibes, it felt empty because it’s not just people uploading their own videos or pictures. It just felt a very kind of flat kind of tone going through it.

The challenge for ads in AI feeds

If you have ads [in an all-AI environment like Sora or Vibes], if everything else is fake, how would people know that they can click on that?