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Well all of those point seem to sum up to: "We're getting beat by Tiktok and we're going to catch up by being more like tiktok" That doesn't exactly exude con

Well all of those point seem to sum up to: "We're getting beat by Tiktok and we're going to catch up by being more like tiktok" That doesn't exactly exude confidence.

sergiotapia 5y ago
I don't know a single person under 30 that still uses Facebook for real. They mostly are still there to talk to grandma or parents. If Facebook hadn't bought whatsapp they would be toast. The writing is on the wall, the beginning of the MySpace curve happening before our very eyes.
- jackling 5y ago
  They also have Instagram, Messenger and Oculus. I think without Whatsapp they'd still be doing decent, and not toast.
ra7 5y ago
Didn't they do the same thing when Snapchat took off and then blew it out of the water with Instagram Stories? There is a track record.
- omot 5y ago
  I will say Instagram is getting so crowded. Adding Stories to Instagram felt natural, but shoving Reels in, feels like a squeeze.
- whyenot 5y ago
  I would argue that they destroyed Instagram in the process. It set them on a path where they add more and more "features" to Instagram for legitimate strategic reasons, but in the process it turned a focused app into something now approaching the hot garbage that is the Facebook.
  - onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago
    The hot garbage app makes almost as much money as Facebook, so... There's that...
    - rurp 5y ago
      For now, but this whole thread is about accepting short term costs for long term gains. The overall direction of Instagram doesn't seem to be following that model.
  - whiplash451 5y ago
    This book explains very well why and how FB destroyed Instagram from day one, cutting its core values (and therefore long-term value) into pieces. https://www.amazon.com/No-Filter-Inside-Story-Instagram-ebook/dp/B07TFB4R2S/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=no+filter+the+inside+story+of+instagram&qid=1643894964&sprefix=instagram+insid%2Caps%2C137&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.com/No-Filter-Inside-Story-Instagram-eboo...
- eloisius 5y ago
  During the time they added stories to Instagram there was still more signal then noise. I enjoyed them because my friends shared casually and it was actually fun to go along on their vacation or bike ride, and not just see the perfectly composed photos which are usually the more polished summary of what the stories covered. At this point, IG is Facebook. The feed is a slurry of signal, random suggestions, shitty ‘memes,’ and ads. When I stumble onto a Reel somehow, it’s the same crap. Stories worked for me because it was my friends. Reels is just random flotsam, and it seems like a ton of it is just reposts from TikTok anyway. Meta’s repeating pattern is to enter every new format, screw with the chronology and cram it full of robo-content until it’s unbearable to look at. That Zuck calls chasing short-form video fad a long-term strategy is pretty telling. They have nothing but crap to sell, and if (if) Metaverse turns out to be anything, it will just be more crap, but you’d have to have your face inside a helmet in order to to enjoy the boomer arguments, shitty ‘memes,’ TikTok reposts and whatever else the content slurry that yields the most engagement is.
- aylmao 5y ago
  There are plenty of parallels with what happened with Snapchat Stories, but I do wonder if it's the "same thing". Stories are best when created by people you know, and they're easy to create too. They're the type of content that would build off of Instagram's social strengths. The type of content people consume on TikTok, as far as I understand, is largely made by creators though. This is similar to YouTube; they now even get financial compensation directly for it too [1] (although apparently this compensation is not as good as YouTube's). This could be a Snapchat vs Instagram Stories situation, or it could be a YouTube vs Facebook Watch / IGTV situation. Facebook has historically been notoriously bad at creating a high-quality video platform, so if that's what it takes to beat TikTok I honestly wouldn't expect Instagram Reels to overtake TikTok anytime soon, especially considering a lot of what I've seen there are random accounts reposting TikTok content (which feels a bit like the type of content Watch became infamous for). [1]: https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-gb/tiktok-creator-fund-your-questions-answered https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-gb/tiktok-creator-fund-your-q...
- whiplash451 5y ago
  TikTok has way more momentum than Snapchat had at the time. Snapchat DAUs today: 300M TikTok DAUs today: 1B
a123b456c 5y ago
Why not? It worked when they copied Snapchat's stories feature.
- IgorPartola 5y ago
  Because so far their content is full of obviously fake poor quality videos and their selection algorithm for those is basically an RNG.
- zepto 5y ago
  It’s too late. Nobody is switching from TikTok to Facebook.
  - newsclues 5y ago
    I think the key is that youth are going to TikTok and not Facebook. They lost the next generation of kids!
    - rdtwo 5y ago
      Yeah idk I thought the same last time but somehow Facebook always comes back buy buying everything And copying everyone
      - Longhanks 5y ago
        It’s time to stop Facebook buying companies then - how anyone approved them buying WhatsApp is beyond my understanding. I really don’t like TikTok, but I really don’t like Facebook (the company) a bit more, so I hope TikTok does well and will not be bought.
      - newsclues 5y ago
        They can acquire new users but copying them or buying them won’t necessarily keep them. If the youth are allergic to any FB networks there just needs to be a viable alternative for them to flee.
      - 5y ago
tmccrary55 5y ago
BoomerTok
IgorPartola 5y ago
I don’t think Facebook will catch up to TikTok with Reels. I do think that it’s quite probably that TikTok will fuck yo their platform before they take down FB.
laurent92 5y ago
I’m addicted to 9Gag, which is closer to TikTok, but the difference is Facebook’s intensive work on breaching privacy, telling all my friends what posts I like. On 9Gag, liking/commenting is basically anonymous, so we’re not afraid of being seen liking something - thus my 15hrs a week in the app.
gorgoiler 5y ago
The media format is the same but it is superficial and a shallow moat at best. The social networks are quite different: FB: formal private (or special interest, in Groups); Insta: close private (or public if you are a verified content producer); TikTok: still about building ad hoc network effects based on content alone.
electrondood 5y ago
It's terrifying, in fact. TikTok is specifically engineered to be cocaine for your attention. This is a race to the bottom, where the human attention span parallels that of a gnat.

Well all of those point seem to sum up to: "We're getting beat by Tiktok and we're going to catch up by being more like tiktok" That doesn't exactly exude confidence.

sergiotapia 5y ago

I don't know a single person under 30 that still uses Facebook for real. They mostly are still there to talk to grandma or parents. If Facebook hadn't bought whatsapp they would be toast. The writing is on the wall, the beginning of the MySpace curve happening before our very eyes.

jackling 5y ago
They also have Instagram, Messenger and Oculus. I think without Whatsapp they'd still be doing decent, and not toast.

ra7 5y ago

Didn't they do the same thing when Snapchat took off and then blew it out of the water with Instagram Stories? There is a track record.

omot 5y ago
I will say Instagram is getting so crowded. Adding Stories to Instagram felt natural, but shoving Reels in, feels like a squeeze.
whyenot 5y ago
I would argue that they destroyed Instagram in the process. It set them on a path where they add more and more "features" to Instagram for legitimate strategic reasons, but in the process it turned a focused app into something now approaching the hot garbage that is the Facebook.
- onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago
  The hot garbage app makes almost as much money as Facebook, so... There's that...
  - rurp 5y ago
    For now, but this whole thread is about accepting short term costs for long term gains. The overall direction of Instagram doesn't seem to be following that model.
- whiplash451 5y ago
  This book explains very well why and how FB destroyed Instagram from day one, cutting its core values (and therefore long-term value) into pieces. https://www.amazon.com/No-Filter-Inside-Story-Instagram-ebook/dp/B07TFB4R2S/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=no+filter+the+inside+story+of+instagram&qid=1643894964&sprefix=instagram+insid%2Caps%2C137&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.com/No-Filter-Inside-Story-Instagram-eboo...
eloisius 5y ago
During the time they added stories to Instagram there was still more signal then noise. I enjoyed them because my friends shared casually and it was actually fun to go along on their vacation or bike ride, and not just see the perfectly composed photos which are usually the more polished summary of what the stories covered. At this point, IG is Facebook. The feed is a slurry of signal, random suggestions, shitty ‘memes,’ and ads. When I stumble onto a Reel somehow, it’s the same crap. Stories worked for me because it was my friends. Reels is just random flotsam, and it seems like a ton of it is just reposts from TikTok anyway. Meta’s repeating pattern is to enter every new format, screw with the chronology and cram it full of robo-content until it’s unbearable to look at. That Zuck calls chasing short-form video fad a long-term strategy is pretty telling. They have nothing but crap to sell, and if (if) Metaverse turns out to be anything, it will just be more crap, but you’d have to have your face inside a helmet in order to to enjoy the boomer arguments, shitty ‘memes,’ TikTok reposts and whatever else the content slurry that yields the most engagement is.
aylmao 5y ago
There are plenty of parallels with what happened with Snapchat Stories, but I do wonder if it's the "same thing". Stories are best when created by people you know, and they're easy to create too. They're the type of content that would build off of Instagram's social strengths. The type of content people consume on TikTok, as far as I understand, is largely made by creators though. This is similar to YouTube; they now even get financial compensation directly for it too [1] (although apparently this compensation is not as good as YouTube's). This could be a Snapchat vs Instagram Stories situation, or it could be a YouTube vs Facebook Watch / IGTV situation. Facebook has historically been notoriously bad at creating a high-quality video platform, so if that's what it takes to beat TikTok I honestly wouldn't expect Instagram Reels to overtake TikTok anytime soon, especially considering a lot of what I've seen there are random accounts reposting TikTok content (which feels a bit like the type of content Watch became infamous for). [1]: https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-gb/tiktok-creator-fund-your-questions-answered https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-gb/tiktok-creator-fund-your-q...
whiplash451 5y ago
TikTok has way more momentum than Snapchat had at the time. Snapchat DAUs today: 300M TikTok DAUs today: 1B

a123b456c 5y ago

Why not? It worked when they copied Snapchat's stories feature.

IgorPartola 5y ago
Because so far their content is full of obviously fake poor quality videos and their selection algorithm for those is basically an RNG.
zepto 5y ago
It’s too late. Nobody is switching from TikTok to Facebook.
- newsclues 5y ago
  I think the key is that youth are going to TikTok and not Facebook. They lost the next generation of kids!
  - rdtwo 5y ago
    Yeah idk I thought the same last time but somehow Facebook always comes back buy buying everything And copying everyone
    - Longhanks 5y ago
      It’s time to stop Facebook buying companies then - how anyone approved them buying WhatsApp is beyond my understanding. I really don’t like TikTok, but I really don’t like Facebook (the company) a bit more, so I hope TikTok does well and will not be bought.
    - newsclues 5y ago
      They can acquire new users but copying them or buying them won’t necessarily keep them. If the youth are allergic to any FB networks there just needs to be a viable alternative for them to flee.
    - 5y ago

tmccrary55 5y ago

BoomerTok

IgorPartola 5y ago

I don’t think Facebook will catch up to TikTok with Reels. I do think that it’s quite probably that TikTok will fuck yo their platform before they take down FB.

laurent92 5y ago

I’m addicted to 9Gag, which is closer to TikTok, but the difference is Facebook’s intensive work on breaching privacy, telling all my friends what posts I like. On 9Gag, liking/commenting is basically anonymous, so we’re not afraid of being seen liking something - thus my 15hrs a week in the app.

gorgoiler 5y ago

The media format is the same but it is superficial and a shallow moat at best. The social networks are quite different: FB: formal private (or special interest, in Groups); Insta: close private (or public if you are a verified content producer); TikTok: still about building ad hoc network effects based on content alone.

electrondood 5y ago

It's terrifying, in fact. TikTok is specifically engineered to be cocaine for your attention. This is a race to the bottom, where the human attention span parallels that of a gnat.