Amazon has added the „Clips" feature inside the Prime Video app - a vertical feed of short videos that look and scroll like TikTok. It launches in the US on iOS, Android and Fire tablets, with a wider rollout in the summer. The idea is simple: 30 seconds from one series, then another 30, until you tap „watch the whole thing."

„Clips offers a completely new way of browsing with short, personalised videos adapted to user interests," says Brian Griffin, head of global customer experience at Prime Video. Translation: the algorithm now works for them too, and exactly the addiction Netflix has long built through recommendations will now have its own vertical feed.

Amazon isn't the innovator here. It already tested it during the NBA season - short clips that scroll like short videos. Netflix, Peacock, Tubi, Disney - they all have their variants. Netflix even uses the same name: „Clips." When four major streamers add the same feature in one year, it's no longer a trend - it's fear.

The streaming platforms are watching TikTok and YouTube Shorts overtake them in hours watched. A young user who spends three hours a day scrolling short videos simply doesn't have the time for a series with 8 episodes. The solution they found: put short videos inside the same app, turn them into „trailers" and hope someone sticks around to see more.

The question is whether this works. When you go to Prime Video to watch a film, do you really want to scroll through 40 short clips first? Or will Amazon ultimately recreate the same problem Netflix is trying to solve - „what do I watch" - just in a faster, more aggressive format. Not the approach, but the addition of one more surface for ads and algorithmic push.