Why I Think Instagram Will Never Catch up to TikTok
The world has discovered what Instagram is missing— and they are going to TikTok for it.
[Note: I am not associated nor have a financial interest with Facebook nor TikTok — opinions are my own]
Despite its history in failing at it, Facebook is adamant: it continues to copy its competitors. Most recent copycat: Reels.
But why do they continue to fail? Because they fail to understand the reason those apps are successful.
In 2013, Mark Zuckerberg tried to buy Snapchat. They declined.
His solution? Launch a copy of Snapchat Stories: Instagram Stories.
In just 2 months after Instagram [which is owned by Facebook] launched its new feature, over 100 million people started posting and sharing stories. It worked. Facebook got validated.
Which explains why Facebook thought it could do this again.
This time, it did not work out as well.
In 2016, a new Chinese app was starting to gain attention and momentum. It had 9 million users. All in China. At the time, short videos were quite popular in China. They were mainly used for political reasons. This app was the first to use 60-second videos just for fun.
