A new feature is hereby Instagram which aims to replicate the key functionality of rising app TikTok.
Rather than taking on parent-company Facebook’s usual tactic of launching a separate app, Instagram is adding its new ‘Reels’ feature as an element within Instagram Stories.
It will use the app’s scale to try and beat TikTok at its own game and blunt its potential to take away younger users.
Reels will enable users to create short videos which can be shared and remixed – just like TikTok.
Those videos can include music, utilizing Facebook’s expanding music library, while Reels also includes a range of creative editing options like variable playback speed and ‘ghosting’ which enables users to create more seamless scene transitions.
The new mode, which will initially only be available to users in Brazil, will be available within the Stories Camera.
While Instagram will look to feature Reels content in a new ‘Top Reels’ section in Explore, adding to the discoverability of the tool.
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Sources : https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/12/instagram-reels/
Facebook’s clearly taking the rise of TikTok seriously, and it’s taking steps to negate it.
But will that work? There’s actually quite a bit to consider on that particular front.
It seems that all bets were off that all social apps started copying others in an attempt to fend off competition after Facebook crossed a key threshold Stories feature.
Initially, it was a surprise to see Facebook rip off another app’s idea, but since then, we’ve seen various other platforms copy Stories, Reactions, and Live-streaming.
After Instagram Stories, duplication became a much more viable, even acceptable strategy within the sector.
It is now so common, in fact, that these days, when a new social app or tool starts to gain momentum you pretty much expect Facebook to be working on its clone version.
Facebook’s key tactic is to create alternative apps or functions, and then roll them out in regions where these rising apps have not yet been able to take hold.
It seems a questionable and anti-competitive tactic designed to stifle all forms of competition. But it works. Facebook continues to add more users and grow its empire, while it’s also on track to rake in $70 billion in revenue in 2019.
It’s easy to point at Facebook’s previous failures, or to criticize it for blatantly replicating its competition. But Facebook slowed Snapchat’s growth to a crawl, which that company is only now recovering from and it may well do the same with TikTok.
As Facebook continues to expand, its capacity to crush rising competitors also grows.
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