About Instagram Reels and copying your competitors' homework to stay at the top
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Ever since Trump claimed that TikTok is a threat to American national security, the app has been facing a very difficult choice: to give up a portion of its company to be managed by an American company or be banned from the country. The clock is ticking for TikTok to make the decision before 20 September 2020.
In the midst of this chaos, Instagram swooped in with Instagram Reels at the beginning of this month. The feature allows users to upload 15-second videos in the familiar full-screen format. The videos will then appear in the newly redecorated Explore tab, which is literally the reminiscent of TikTok’s feed. It is apparent that Facebook is trying to make use of this opportunity to lure TikTok users away from the Chinese-made-and-developed-app by blatantly copying its very own competitor.
However, Reels has been receiving series of criticisms from digital experts. Unlike TikTok that is very much focused on features that aim to facilitate easy content creation and provide content, Instagram already offers a lot.
Having that many options in an app might seem good, but it could be either confusing or just unnoticeable for users, thus making Reels somewhat redundant. Other criticisms are directed on the company’s tendency to copy the features of platforms they are interested to acquire.
At a glance, it might look like a common rivalry between two platforms, but the fact that Facebook is blatantly copying TikTok sends another message. This is not the first time Facebook did something like this using Instagram.
Back in 2016, Facebook’s newly acquired platform came up with Instagram Story, a feature with formats exactly like Snapchat’s Story. Both allow users to post photo or short videos that would last 24 hours. Back then, it also happened that Mark Zuckerberg, the man behind the social media giants, was interested in acquiring Snapchat.
Along with Amazon and Google, Facebook is accused of crushing its rivals to expand. Their methods are either acquiring the target companies (like what they did to Instagram and WhatsApp) or copying the certain functions of their competitors.
When confronted about this in an antitrust hearing with other tech giants in late July, Zuckerberg merely admitted that Facebook has “adapted features” from the said competitors. This habit is indeed considered a concern by the US House of Representatives.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington, went as far as questioning Zuckerberg whether Facebook has ever threatened to clone products from its competitors while trying to acquire them. She referenced the exchange between Zuckerberg and Kevin Systrom back in 2012, where Zuckerberg said that Facebook was developing its own photo strategy, and how their engagement at that time would “determine how much we're partners versus competitors down the line.” According to Jayapal, Systrom found the statement to be threatening. However, Zuckerberg denied the accusation.
Even in an open market as big as the US, any tendency to abuse one’s market power is considered a threat. However, it’s not as if a tech giant like Facebook would be facing consequences big enough to stop them from doing so.
The system in the industry even appear to enable the likes of Facebook to stay at the top and dominate the market. The system that guarantees everyone the fair chance to compete also prevents everyone from accessing this freedom by producing the big names that we know today. Maybe, everything is indeed fair in love and market wars.