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Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

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Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#331
post #143

Reels isn’t going to compete with TikTok in any real way for a few simple reasons. First and foremost, as a non-Instagram user, I flat-out can’t use it. A while back, when I was curious about TikTok, I downloaded it and was instantly swiping through a video feed that was already getting customized for me. I downloaded Instagram this morning and was presented with a wall to create an account. Nope. Second, TikTok is n…

People also want to use the apps that corporations haven't infiltrated yet. Notice how there's very little advertising / sponsored posts / product placement on TikTok. See: IG is basically the Home Shopping Network now, with an ad between every third post and sponsored products in every mainstream account's feed.

Lol. I use IG mainly for advertisings from local restaurants and hotels. It worked pretty well for me so far. I have discovered so many businesses.

Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#332

hats off to Facebook for being absolutely shameless and zero ethics they don't even pretend to be honest (unlike Google) and it's a miracle so far they haven't had to pay damages for all the 'inspiration' they have found from other people's products

I'm sure 'Zuck is very sorry.

For reference: https://www.wired.com/story/why-zuckerberg-15-year-apology-t...

Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A while back, when I was curious about TikTok, I downloaded it and was instantly swiping through a video feed that was already getting customized for me. Has this been definitely proven though? I tried finding evidence of whether TikTok tailors content for unregistered users (based on their location/device for example), but so far, I could not find a page that would even clearly ask that question. Every article abo…

> Reels isn’t going to compete with TikTok in any real way for a few simple reasons. > First and foremost, as a non-Instagram user, I flat-out can’t use it Huh – Reels isn't going to compete because you need to download Instagram?

> I downloaded Instagram this morning and was presented with a wall to create an account. Nope

He thinks Reels won’t compete because it forces you to create an Instagram account, you don’t need an account to use TikTok

Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#335
post #327

It seems like Instagram is Facebook's anti-competitive tool. Whenever some new social network crops up, Facebook bolts on a clone to Instagram. Eventually it's going to be such a bloated mess it's going to cease being useful to anyone.

Is going to be? Instagram already lost me a while ago. It started to hamfist Snapchat stories in there. I also believe they tried to force in Facebook Messenger features at some point. It also totally ruined any proper disoverability. You like one Comic Book post and suddenly you only get stupid text only posts about superhero facts. With no way to manually configure your interests. And to make things worse, my perso…

> All I want is sharing pictures I took with my friends, while also looking at photography from random people.

Sharing pics & stories with friends/ family was why I started using FB years ago. I think Instagram became popular because FB had become a polluted mess before young people even had a chance to try it. Older people just stuck around out of habit.

I never liked IG because generally my FB posts and images are hosted on my blog first and crossposted, something you can't do on IG.

Fully agree that IG is already a mess. But people haven't really abandoned it yet in numbers. They just stopped attracting new people.

Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>there may be a human-oriented life cycle to these sorts of social apps. Once a social platform is around long enough, it becomes the thing that old people use Precisely, although I think it's 50/50 between "what old people use" and "where the corporations live". IG is being used less and less because it's turned into the Home Shopping Network, places like TikTok are popular because corporate interests haven't shown…

> IG is being used less and less because it's turned into the Home Shopping Network I'm not so sure about this. 80% of my communication happens through Instagram DMs, and I haven't heard a single complaint about advertisements, or Instagram at all. Rather, I see friends browsing content on TikTok (rather than on IG), then re-sharing it through DMs. They browse on TikTok because its For You Page curation makes finding…

I'm sure it depends a lot on region and social circles. I work in tech, and IG is basically dead other than interacting with businesses with my peers. I also have two sisters in high school who confirm IG isn't really a thing anymore for the younger crowd.

Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Such an odd decision... they had an app for private communication (the value prop was "you can be yourself when your parents and boss aren't in the audience") and tacked on the supermarket tabloids and celebrity news.

> the value prop was "you can be yourself when your parents and boss aren't in the audience" If that's the value prop, what were people willing to pay for that value? I think, instead, getting sponsored stories in front of eyeballs is the service being provided to the paying customers.

I'm glad Snap figured out a way to profitability (and what do I know as an outsider looking in), but they don't have as much good demographic info as say Facebook, so they can't for instance show men's shaving ads to men only, which I recall made their sponsored stories very "most common denominator". I no longer use Snapchat and I used to be a daily user maybe 4 years ago.

Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#338

> Reels' video distribution algorithm will resemble TikTok's: users will see the most popular videos at the moment, rather than a selection tailored to their individual profile. That's not how TikTok works, the feed is really good at tailoring to the stuff you actually like to watch. It's a big part of why it's so popular. > Reels differs from TikTok thanks to Instagram's augmented reality effects, which let users ov…

I dislike Reel already. I follow wood working, RC cars, and metal fab/3D printing/CNC. Now when I browse it's nothing but women jumping around and showing off their clothes... WTH!? So I start saying, not interested to all of that, still spams me with it.

You have to train the feed. A few days on Tik Tok aggressively disliking things you don't want to see and liking things you do, and it becomes an unending stream of interesting content. A single dislike won't do it alone though.

Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#339
post #94
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an American who looks at WeChat and sees a massive, unintuitive jumbled mess, you've explained in this comment how that could possibly be so popular in China! I feel foolish for not having realized that the UX must make perfect sense to everyone who has used WeChat since the days of it being a simple communication app. By that logic, I'm not sure we could say quite yet that Instagram's bundling is a mistake.

WeChat has lots of things hidden behind low impression entrypoints. You can explore them when you want. Its primary features, chat and moments, are dead simple, like WhatsApp. Facebook on the other hand, are mixing lots of stuff into their main feed, making the experience horrible for everyone

Instagram is dead simple as well, if you stick to the main feed and just posting photos. I've used instagram without touching any of the stuff discussed in the top-level comment.

Re: Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels

#340
post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The division they have helped foment in the US is pretty impressive.

If your system of government is not robust to 280-character text messages ... perhaps the problem is not the messages.

Where did I talk about the government?
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