TikTok Testing Full-Length Podcasts, Challenging YouTube and Spotify

Video-sharing social media platform TikTok is reportedly testing full-length podcasts in its app, challenging rival platforms such as YouTube and Spotify.

The Chinese company's podcast feature will reportedly let users import full episodes through their RSS feed and link them to short-form clips.

Furthermore, a screenshot of the Podcast invitation provided by PodNews revealed that users can import podcasts by:

• Going to the "Upload" icon located in the top right corner
• Clicking the "link podcast" tab
• Entering the link to their RSS feed
• Selecting an episode, and then choosing videos to link to their podcast

"Viewers will be able to listen to your podcast episode from the linked videos," the guide wrote. 

Zachary Kizer, TikTok's global product communications manager, confirmed with The Verge that the company is working on the new feature and testing it on select U.S.-based users.

While TikTok has been working on expanding its product offering with the integration of podcasts, competitors like Spotify have been refining their podcast strategy with a focus on creating original podcast content to reduce dependency on music revenue. 

Meanwhile, YouTube introduced podcasts to YouTube Music earlier this year, adding podcast creation tools to Youtube Studio and letting users add audio podcasts to its platform via RSS feeds.

Edited by Nikola Djuric