Skyler Chase, 25, grew up watching vlogs and comedy skits on YouTube. He wasn’t just amusing himself. He learned professional skills to run his Los Angeles-based marketing agency and teach social media classes. Last September, he started a course on TikTok, in addition to what had been his only offering, a course on Instagram. The class has taken off because TikTok and its lower barrier to entry have lured people intimidated by YouTube, he said.
“On YouTube, creating content is completely different,” he said. “It really comes down to having the quality of your video. You must have a nice camera. On TikTok, all you have to do is use your phone.”
Mr. Chase’s two-hour class, who the platforms say has more than 22,000 students in Skillshare and Udemy, borrows from his “YouTube background” but aims to be “slightly more accessible to the older generation.” he said.
Lessons like Mr. Chase’s have attracted companies interested in marketing on TikTok and young people focused on content creation, said Alicia Hamilton-Morales, senior vice president of content, community and brand at Skillshare.
“While YouTube is so dominant and wildly successful, TikTok has broadened the desire to understand how to create and optimize video in a much broader market,” she said.
Angalee Schmidt, 25, took Mr. Chase’s class at the start of the pandemic to learn how to dream and then make TikTok videos. Her work in tourism had dried up, so she gave up traveling and moved to Rochester, Minn., full-time and sought a career switch to social media marketing.
“Part of that was figuring out: How can I make money now?” said Mrs. Schmidt. Her answer came on TikTok. “I saw all these people making videos and I was like ‘I can make that myself.'”
