Facebook to further compete TikTok, releases Facebook Reels in the US

While other social networks were largely focused towards promoting long form video content and made their platforms friendlier towards it, TikTok located a potential market and that was short form video content ranging from seconds to a few minutes. TikTok thus created a platform that was based upon short videos and it was soon an instant hit. TikTok users grew within a small time period and soon TikTok reached the list of the top social media apps, while also dominating many of them in different aspects. The growth that TikTok achieved in such a small time period was impressive. This mystery behind this success lied in TikTok’s niche and that is the small form video content which provides excellent engagement thus attracting such a large amount of users.

Other social media companies watching the growth of TikTok were astonished while also being scared of the platform since it can possibly capture their markets. Thus, multiple social media platforms including Instagram and YouTube jumped in and created their own versions of short form video features so that they can compete TikTok and gain a larger market share. While these new features are widely used amongst users, they were still not able to stop TikTok’s unmatchable growth. TikTok as of now has become the third most used social media application amongst users, while Facebook and its daughter company Instagram remains on the first two position, however TikTok is close to beating the tech giant Instagram and is soon expected to reach the second position.

The fact that the demand of TikTok is constantly increasing is surely a danger to the tech giant, which is why after launching Instagram Reels, Facebook came out with Reels for its own main application. The company have now decided to release Reels on Facebook in US, as reported by TechCrunch.

The test version of the ‘Facebook Reels’ feature had launched early this year in India, Mexico and Canada. It allows for users on Facebook to create and share short videos on the platform. While the test release in the three countries showed positive response, Facebook hopes that it stays the response stays the same in US.

Facebook alongside its release in the US announced another new feature which allows creators on Instagram to have the option of showing their Instagram Reel in the Facebook’s recommended section has also been added. Once a creator turns on this feature, their videos starts to show under the Reels section on the news feed.

The procedure to create Reels on Facebook is pretty easy. All users have to do is to go to into the Reels section that appears on the newsfeed, then scroll down and tap the create button on top. From here users will be given access to the Reel video creator, the video creator contains a recording camera, music, text input, camera import and almost everything required to make a Reel. This makes its similar to the reel video creator on Instagram however, the Instagram version already has advertisements and also includes a feature named ‘remix’ that allows users to make reels together. However, Facebook has plans to soon bring monetization and the remix feature to Facebook Reels.

While users will be recommended Reels according to their interests, they will also be able to share and search for Reels.

Facebook while releasing Reels on its platform said that half the time users spend on Facebook goes into watching videos and with the sudden popularity of short form video content, Facebook decided to replicate it. Facebook then said that the version releasing in the US, is also a test and the final version of Facebook Reels will be different than this.

H/T: TC.

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