Despite the Lasso shutdown, Facebook is betting on Reels to compete against TikTok. Reels, unlike Lasso, will not be an independent application, but will instead be integrated into the Instagram application through its own section. With this, Facebook will try to make a move similar to that made with the integration of Stories to compete against Snapchat.
And taking advantage of the fact that TikTok has recently been banned in India along with other Chinese applications, and that even from the United States they are studying the possibility of banning it in that country, always under the suspicion that TikTok is serving as a spy to collect data to put them on disposition of the Chinese government, something denied by Bytedance, the parent company, Facebook will take advantage of the situation to launch Reels globally.
In this sense, as published today by NBCnews based on familiar sources, the company is finalizing the global launch of Reels, with the idea of Reach the United States and 50 additional markets over the next few weeks.
We must remember that Reels began in Brazil last November to reach France and Germany last month, and more recently, after the TikTok ban, to India.
Reels offers many of the features available on TikTok, including the ability to create videos based on the audio of other users’ videos, access to a sufficient catalog of music, get to know the most prominent videos, and much more, although that is, Videos will be about 15 seconds long (on TikTok you can toggle between 15 seconds and 60 seconds).
Facebook try to steal market share from TikTok in those markets where it is arriving, above all, in view of reaching a younger public. It is curious that TikTok was able to expand in the United States through the acquisition of Musical.ly, an operation that will soon be two years old, and that if it is shown that it is sending information to the Chinese government, the Foreign Investment Committee in the United States will try to pressure ByteDance to sell Musical.ly again, as the aforementioned publication also explains.
