But Instagram and its parent company Facebook (FB) struggling to do the same to TikTok.
Instagram launched Reels, a short-lived video product, in the U.S. on August 5, days after former President Donald Trump announced plans to ban TikTok in Chinese country, and scramble panicked users to find alternatives.
Six months later, it is not rising as the company had hoped. TikTok has survived the Trump administration and is still popular, with about 100 million users in the US, having a significant impact on American pop culture and a loyal mix of influencers who seem to be going nowhere. Unlike with Stories at this stage of its history, Instagram has so far not released any stats on Reels.
“TikTok is Reels light years ahead,” said Evan Asano, CEO of marketing agency Mediakix, referring to TikTok’s powerful content recommendation system and the fact that the app is much more focused than Instagram’s, which is a growing list of competitive video offers. .
Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, recently acknowledged Reels has work to do and pointed out that Instagram needs to simplify or consolidate its various video product offerings.
“I’m not happy about that yet,” Mosseri said in a Verge interview on Reels last month. “We are growing both in terms of how many people share and how many people consume, but we still have a long way to go.”
Facebook has been scrutinized by regulators and critics for its aggressive approach to gaining or cloning competitors to maintain its dominance in the social media market. But Instagram’s early struggle to tackle TikTok is a reminder that a number of Facebook’s copycat products flopped or fell short. Building a clone is easy; creating a vibrant community is not for the social media giant.
Instagram has made some adjustments to the product since its launch, including giving Reels its own dedicated page on the Instagram home screen and adding more editing tools. But Instagram Reels remains largely home to TikToks’ biggest hits, with many people posting popular TikTok videos featuring the platform’s brand watermark. It’s common to browse Reels videos and watch one TikTok video after another.
“Everyone will always tell me ‘I’m going to film TikToks,’ but they never say ‘We’m going to film Reels,'” said Parker Pannell, a 17-year-old boy with 2.4 million TikTok fans who thinks of farm to Reels as an afterthought. “TikTok creates the trends, they build new creators, people build their most loyal followers [there]. People are so conceded in this TikTok environment, they are not ready to switch to another platform like Reels. ‘
This is not the first time that Instagram is struggling to get a grip with video. In 2018, it introduced a new long-running video feature and standalone app called IGTV, in an effort to compete better with YouTube, but it ran into problems. Instagram eventually removed the IGTV button from the top of people’s feeds because almost no one clicked on it. Now IGTV videos are part of the main feed.
With Reels, Instagram has tried to replicate much of what TikTok is popular with, including editing effects and the ability to add music or a background sound. But what’s harder to follow is the powerful “For You Page” from TikTok and the algorithm that tailors videos tailored to each user’s interest.
“I will never count Instagram in any way. They are usually laser-focused on how to stay abreast of the competition,” said Karyn Spencer, general manager of influencing agency Whalar and former chief creative officer of short-form video platform Vine , said. . “At the same time, I don’t think any of us are experiencing the same type of algorithm on Instagram as we are currently experiencing on TikTok.”
The slower start with Reels could also highlight a broader issue with Instagram. ‘Doing the simple thing first’ has been a long mantra for the company, but some social media experts believe the app has become increasingly complex and confusing as more features are expanded. And it’s hard not to feel the influence of Facebook, especially since the founders of Instagram are gone in 2018.
TikTok’s simplicity gives it a ‘big advantage’, said Asi of Mediakix, adding that Instagram now has shopping capabilities, Stories, Rules and other video formats, which he says ultimately compete with each other.
“Soon you will get a monster that no one can understand,” he said.
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