Are you still watching out what’s going to be the next TikTok or short form video platform? Facebook is hoping that its current users would jump on this bandwagon as they have expanded their Reels feature to the U.S. Previously we’ve seen it tested in India, Mexico, and Canada, and now they’re bringing the limited roll out to users in the U.S. Instagram users will also be able to cross-post their reels in the main app. Facebook may be offering financial incentives as well to get creators to post content on the platform.
For years now, established social media companies have been trying to chase TikTok by creating their own versions of the short-form video on their own platform. Facebook is now trying to get a wider market for testing out their Reels feature by bringing it to the U.S market. The Verge says that the justification for this move is that a lot of people are on Facebook are watching videos anyway and that Reels has seen a pretty quick growth with their test markets.
So if you’re one of the people who will see Reels on their Facebook app, you will be able to watch the short-form videos that have already been posted by creators and also make your own videos so you can be part of this “growing market”. The main goal of Reels is for people to “express themselves”, find some content that they may like, and also help content creators reach more people as well. There may be people who will just watch content but what they also need is people to post content.
Competitors have been coughing up millions to get content creators on their platforms and not just cross-post what they already did on TikTok. Snapchat had to spend $1 million per day to get people to use Spotlight. YouTube also previously announced the Shorts Fund which will shell out $100 million throughout the year to get people to use YouTube Shorts. For its part, Facebook said it will spend $1 billion on Facebook and Instagram content creators until 2022 and “roll out additional bonus programs and seed funding” specifically for Reels.
For now, it’s still in the testing phase so it’s hard to see how much impact Facebook Reels will have. It’s worth keeping an eye on all these short-form video features and see if TikTok’s popularity will eventually wane in the light of competition.
