Copy Cat Facebook To Launch a TikTok Competitor
Amid the Trump administrations fight to ban Chinese owned sensation, TikTok, Facebook has strategically announced the release of Reels, a TikTok competitor, to be released early August. Reels is a short format video format and will be part of Instagram Stories.
According to Business Insider, Facebook has been testing Reels in Brazil since November 2019. Facebook is eager to capitalize on the viral sensation of TikTok which has over 2 billion global downloads. Naturally, Facebook is doing what it knows best: copy a successful and innovative platform and then steal its users. Facebook famously copied Snapchat by creating Instagram Stories and now Stories are more popular than Snapchat ever was.
Along with its announcement, Facebook published screenshots showing what Instagram Reels would look like. Not surprisingly, Reels looks very similar to TikTok’s design. One of the main differences between the two is that Reels will be 15 seconds long while TikTok videos are 60 seconds, but, this can change before Reels is released.
Business Insider, aptly analyzes the timing of the Reels announcement. It’s likely Mark Zuckerberg is taking advantage of Trump’s tension with China in order to boost Reels if TikTok is banned in the U.S. It wouldn’t be the first time Zuckerberg uses politics in order to help Facebook capitalize.
I hope TikTok’s success continues. Healthy competition is important but outright copying is boring. Facebook is slowly becoming a social media monopoly and if it succeeds in stealing away TikTok users and ultimately kills TikTok ala Snapchat, then what’s the point of innovation if a tech giant will squash you like a bug?
