Re:Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels
by k__ on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @11:24AM
(#24061831)
"they just tack on the feature to one of their existing social products"
After the rise of Snapchat Facebook tacked on stories to FB, IG, and WA.
Re:Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels
by toper-centage on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @12:39PM
(#24062764)
Meanwhile snapchat pushed for weird tv shows and sponsored and featured stories, pushing friend stories to the tiny row on top. It's like they do it on purpose to alienate users in exchange for short time increase in "engagement".
Re:Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels
by chillacy on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @06:34PM
(#24066353)
Such an odd decision... they had an app for private communication (the value prop was "you can be yourself when your parents and boss aren't in the audience") and tacked on the supermarket tabloids and celebrity news.
Re:Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels
by dragonwriter on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @08:06PM
(#24066934)
> the value prop was "you can be yourself when your parents and boss aren't in the audience"
If that's the value prop, what were people willing to pay for that value?
I think, instead, getting sponsored stories in front of eyeballs is the service being provided to the paying customers.
Re:Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels
by chillacy on Thursday August 06, 2020 @01:37PM
(#24073346)
I'm glad Snap figured out a way to profitability (and what do I know as an outsider looking in), but they don't have as much good demographic info as say Facebook, so they can't for instance show men's shaving ads to men only, which I recall made their sponsored stories very "most common denominator". I no longer use Snapchat and I used to be a daily user maybe 4 years ago.
Re:Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels
by uoaei on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @01:02PM
(#24063029)
These sorts of metrics are interesting to investors at a quarterly timescale.
Understanding these phenomena is easier when you think of it solely in terms of the bottom line.
Re:Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels
by tsycho on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @11:29AM
(#24061900)
And even if they lose some users when they split out the feature to a separate app, they have still slowed down the growth of their competitor.
It's an ugly, but effective strategy.
Re:Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels
by underwater on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @08:02PM
(#24066910)
This is the strategy Facebook did with Messenger. Absolutely everyone complained when they tried to spin it out.
Re:Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels
by conradfr on Thursday August 06, 2020 @01:00AM
(#24068252)
It was annoying but nowadays it helps you never see or use the main Facebook app.
So in a way their arrogance may have hurt them in the long run.
Re:Facebook launches its TikTok rival, Instagram Reels
by Swizec on Wednesday August 05, 2020 @12:57PM
(#24062974)
> Then I would completely break the feature out into its own app with separate branding. Hopefully I could get 10-20% of the active users of that feature to move to the new app and then grow it from there.
As we all know this strategy worked great for Foursquare.
What I would do to solve this problem if I were at Facebook is to start new features out on an established platform (like they already do) until they reach a critical mass. Then I would completely break the feature out into its own app with separate branding. Hopefully I could get 10-20% of the active users of that feature to move to the new app and then grow it from there.
It's a very delicate process each time you do it but I think in the long run it would diversify Facebook's revenue across many independent brands and solve the feature creep problem.