As previously leaked and expected, Facebook owned Instagram officially announced “Reels”, a TikTok competitor built-in Instagram’s camera. It is initially launching in 50 countries, a few being: United States, India, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, and many more.
Instagram has taken this on as an opportunity over TikTok being banned in several large markets; and it’s threat on being banned in the United States. Even though talks of the Chinese app being acquired by Microsoft, nothing has yet come to a conclusion.
The app allows you to “Record and edit 15-second multi-clip videos with audio, effects, and new creative tools. You can share reels with your followers on Feed, and, if you have a public account, make them available to the wider Instagram community through a new space in Explore. Reels in Explore offers anyone the chance to become a creator on Instagram and reach new audiences on a global stage.”, as mentioned by Instagram on their official blog page.
Now, one major advantage Instagram has is the number of active users, that is a whooping 1 billion according to Statista as of July 2020. Also, making it’s debut in 50 countries gathers lots of audience.
It could possibly be the end for the search for a new TikTok alternative. But on top of that, Instagram’s Product Director, Robby Stein told The Verge, “I think TikTok deserves a ton of credit for popularising formats in this space, and it’s just great work, but at the end of the day, no two products are exactly alike, and ours are not either.”
