Instagram Is Coming for TikTok's Head By Copying Its Best Features (gizmodo.com) 21
First, Instagram killed Snapchat when it cribbed its Stories feature. Now, the social media platform is reportedly gunning for TikTok with a new format called Reels. From a report: Reels is currently being rolled out in Brazil. Available on both iOS and Android, the feature lets users record 15-second clips that can then be set to music. Users can adjust speed, as well as borrow audio from other videos to remix and riff content. It also appears Instagram is adding video editing tools, like the ability to add timed captions and ghost overlays for transitions. Once a user is finished editing, the video can then be posted to their Stories -- and may also be shared to a new "Top Reels" section in the Explore tab. At the moment, there's no concrete timeline for when we might see Reels stateside. An Instagram spokesperson told Gizmodo that the company is simply excited to test the feature in Brazil for now, and "incorporate learnings and feed back from the community as [it] goes."
Great (Score:2)
Nothing like good old "tech news".
Re: (Score:2)
Website gets popular, then a larger website tries to steal its key feature. Film at 11... oh, wait, they already reported this story with the a name difference.
I guess I'm old (Score:3)
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It is Chinese spyware. Looks like Facebook needs to up their spyware game.
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I missed the "TikTok" train, apparently. I know they advertised the shit out of it, but I never really knew what it was. To be honest, I still don't know what differentiates it from their competitors. I feel old now, dammit.
The advantage in being old, is that you should know by now that it doesn't matter. All of this shit will be replaced by something else in a few years anyway.
Generation effect (Score:4, Insightful)
I missed the "TikTok" train, apparently.
Well, you're not the intended target audience, anyway...
I know they advertised the shit out of it,
The fact that you saw ads *about* TikTok basically points to the fact that you were already *on another (older) social network* where you saw said ads.
(Depending on your age, that might have been on Facebook, or on WhatsApp/Instagram)
There is a strong generation effect in social network :
- They have an extremely powerful network effect... but only among samilar social groups. Basically among the same generation.
- The next generation isn't interested in going into to the same platform that their parents are on, they are interested in going to the new hot thing that their friends are on.
So you see a succession of platforms: MySpace, then Facebook, then WhatsApp and Instagram more or less concurrently, then SnapChat, and now the kids are on TikTok. /., you probably aren't the target audience for Tiktok. If you have young kids, they are probably check it out.
If you're old enough to be on
Interestingly, Mark Zuckerberg is completely aware of the generation progression and has put effort to either buy the newcomers (he managed to secure his post-Facebook relevance by buying out WhatsApp and Instagram) or, when failing to acquire, put as much as possible efforts to clone the main features of upcoming competitors to try to maintain a bit of relevance (Never managed to buy Snap: so cloning most of its feature. TikTok slipped through his finger and went to a Chinese owner instead: so he will be cloning some features into Instagram to try to keep that own somewhat relevant).
Prepare to see the same thing happening within 5 years with yet another up going soon-popular platform. Either Facebook will buy it. Or somebody else will snatch it first and Facebook will try cloning as much as possible its features, while all of us older fucks are wondering why the fuss about this stuff that we haven't heard about (as we're still on Facebook / WhatsApp / Snapchat / Tiktok / whatever is appropriate for your age cohort).
Basically Facebook is the new Microsoft with a few key difference.
- Back then Microsoft use to buy upcoming competitors to kill them and avoid losing dominance. Said competitor more or less poped up randomly in the landscape.
- Nowadays competitors pop-up in a very regular cyclic pattern whenever a new generation of users arrive, they are successful anyway almost by definition (kids don't want to be on the same platform as their parents), and Mark Zuckerberg buys them to stay relevant not kill them.
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> while all of us older fucks are wondering why the fuss about this stuff that we haven't heard about (as we're still on Facebook / WhatsApp / Snapchat / Tiktok / whatever is appropriate for your age cohort).
You mean irc, usenet, gopher?
Kids back then (Score:2)
You mean irc, usenet, gopher?
I'm a bit younger : I wasn't in a university back then. :-D
So for me, it was more "chat on the BBS that you connect to in the middle of the night because the phone rates are cheaper"
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That train is nowhere near your stop... TikTok is internationally hotter than it is here.
for their head? (Score:3, Insightful)
What does this have to do with coming for their head? This sounds like they are trying to either recruit or attack TikTok CEO? Sounds like they are just trying to steal their IP more so than "coming for their head".
Snapchat? (Score:2)
Instagram killed Snapchat? Everyone I know uses Snapchat.
It's interesting where people frame success as not being the largest in an area. If you aren't as huge as Google, you have failed as a search platform. If you aren't as huge as Facebook, you have failed as a social media platform.
Re:Snapchat? (Score:5, Funny)
If you aren't as huge as Google, you have failed as a search platform. If you aren't as huge as Facebook, you have failed as a social media platform.
And if you're on TikTok, you've failed as an adult.
Snarky-ness aside, I agree with your point. I understand that companies are always striving to be the "leader" in a segment. You don't necessarily need to be the biggest to be the best.
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I understand that companies are always striving to be the "leader" in a segment. You don't necessarily need to be the biggest to be the best.
Maybe not, but it does help in certain arenas. Social Media, particularly, is won and lost by the network effect. The amount one can command for advertisements is heavily influenced by the number of potential viewers. Nobody reads my blog, which is why I can't get the same $3 million for a 30-second video ad that CBS gets for the Super Bowl. That doesn't mean Duck Duck Go can't sell ad space and pay their bills with it, but it also means that there's a reason why DDG made $25 million last year and Google ma
Softcore child pornography? (Score:2)
What planet is this even from?? (Score:2)
Stop peddling TikTok! Nobody cares!
It's the Flappy Bird of "social" networks!
It exclusively gets "popularity" from morons like you hyping it and acting like it is popular. Ex-clu-si-ve-ly!
\o/ (Score:1)
Please tell me TikTok knows how to keep a pinch-zoomed image zoomed in when you release your fingers!
So it's okay.. (Score:2)
So it's okay when the American company takes the IP from the Chinese company but if it was the Chinese company stealing the idea of an American company there would have been a ton of posts on here saying how wrong they were.
Also, what's with the hate on here for Tik Tok? At least it isn't Facebook which Instagram is part of.