When Facebook had to take down Snapchat – it took three standalone apps (Lifestage, Poke and Slingshot) before coming up with the perfect recipe (Instagram Stories).
Today, FB is once again in the race to take down the unstoppable TikTok and finally, they’re seeing light at the end of the tunnel.
FB launched its TikTok clone, Lasso, in 2018.
Like TikTok, Lasso was centred around an “algorithmic feed of recommended videos”.
However, with just over 5M downloads, Lasso was no competition to TikTok’s 2B user base.
Last week, things changed. TikTok got knocked out from its largest overseas market.
India banned TikTok along with 58 other Chinese apps, citing national security concerns.
TikTok creators are now looking for other avenues to express themselves.
And, FB is ready to swoop in.
The company is shutting down Lasso and launching yet another TikTok clone called Instagram Reels.
Unlike Lasso, Reels will reside within IG. It will let people create TikTok-style videos that can be natively shared on their IG Stories, sent via DM, or posted to a section of the Explore tab called Top Reels.
However, FB is not without competition. Indian video-sharing apps like Roposo, Chingari and Mitron are also witnessing a surge in popularity right now.
The patriotic notion among the Indian population is making people lean more towards home-grown products. This might become a hurdle in FB’s way no matter how good Reels turn out to be.
Reference: Techcrunch
Photo Credits: Prateek Katyal/Pexel
Prashant Bagga 