Amazon Prime Video Adds Short-Form News Clips to Rival TikTok

Amazon Prime Video is launching on-demand short-form news clips to compete with the growing popularity of social media platform TikTok. The new feature will offer brief video reports covering a range of local and international news.

The feature will initially be available on TVs and living-room devices, but will soon be added to the Prime Video web version as well as its iOS and Android mobile apps.

The videos will be available under the “Trending Topics” and “Local News” segments in the app’s News section. Any user in the United States will be able to watch these news clips for free, even without an Amazon Prime subscription.

A Strategy to Attract Gen Z

Today’s younger generation, particularly Gen Z, increasingly relies on short-form videos such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts for news rather than television or lengthy reports. They generally prefer hearing complex stories explained in simpler formats by content creators and influencers.

Since Amazon does not have its own social network, it plans to keep younger viewers engaged by bringing this type of service directly into Prime Video. Research has shown that younger news consumers tend to prefer brief news presented in a natural and organic style over heavily edited reports.

A New Trend in the Streaming Industry

Amazon is not the first company to respond to viewers’ growing demand for entertainment and information in a short amount of time. The trend is spreading across the entire streaming industry. Peacock added short-form videos to its app in March this year, followed by HBO Max and Netflix in July and Disney+ in August. Rather than spending hours consuming content, viewers increasingly want to get the updates they need within a few minutes, prompting streaming giants to embrace this new approach.

//DBTech/BMT/OR//