Meta doubled down on Facebook Reels as a rival to the wildly popular TikTok by expanding the program to more than 150 countries and adding editorial and monetization properties.
TikTok is a strong customer base in terms of regular users and brands with over 1 billion active users.
Millions of short videos reach people all over the world every day.
It is also an important tool for brand management and advertising promotion.
To capture this trend, Meta created Instagram Reels in countries such as the US, Canada, Mexico, and India in 2020, and Facebook Reels in September 2021.
Meta is opening reels worldwide to 150 countries Help create new and interesting content, give users a way to make money, and connect with your audience.
TikTok vs Facebook Reels
TikTok launched in China in 2016, but it wasn’t available for iOS or Android until 2017. Its popularity didn’t rise until it merged with music.ly in 2018. This makes it an app with existing videos and users worldwide.
TikTok allows people to make videos and share them on the app. People add filters and other decorations to make videos more interesting or marketable. It has a variety of themes, from home improvement, comedy, conspiracy theories, and more.
Users can follow creators, comment on videos, like videos, swipe or switch videos down. Brands can have their own TikTok accounts for organic reach or create TikToks for sponsored ads.
Reels has a similar interface, but with several ad options, with more to come in the near future. These ad options include overlay ads, banner ads, and sticker ads. Meta is testing a creator revenue stream, where people can buy stars for their favorite creators.
Added editing features
Meta also introduces new editing features, including:
- Remixes that allow people to create a reel alongside existing and publicly shared reels
- 60 second scroll
- Create a draft scroll
- Video clips make it easier for creators to test different formats of live and long-form content
Can reels compete with Tik Tok?
The massive reach of Facebook and Instagram gave Meta the opportunity to reach more people through Reels than TikTok. The question is will people take advantage of this or ignore it because of the more familiar TikTok.
Facebook’s demographics are older than TikTok, are they willing to use Reels or just re-use existing TikTok for a new program?
resource: Yuan
Featured image: Screenshot from fb.com.about/news, February 2022.
