It's fascinating to see Facebook threatened by a company they can't just acquire to put down their competition. Their response in the form of Reels is consistently much worse at recommending quality content than Tiktok is and generally just comprises re-uploads from Tiktok, which is a bad look (people aren't making their content for Reels first). Tiktok is also addictive in a way that no competing app has managed to capture.
I'm still optimistic Facebook can recover based on the quality and abundance of talent they have working on the product, but it's been a year and Tiktok only continues to strengthen their position while Reels doesn't appear to have improved, at least from the customer-facing side. We may be witnessing the early stages of a shift in social media apps that Facebook cannot stop.
I’ve noticed most the re-uploaded content on Reels are from meme accounts and not the actual TikTok user themselves, which leads me to believe its shortcomings are more of a content and cultural issue.
Instagram has become way more formal and people’s profiles are carefully curated now. Posting silly trends or going on live on Instagram would be a form of social suicide for many.
I'm still optimistic Facebook can recover based on the quality and abundance of talent they have working on the product, but it's been a year and Tiktok only continues to strengthen their position while Reels doesn't appear to have improved, at least from the customer-facing side. We may be witnessing the early stages of a shift in social media apps that Facebook cannot stop.