- Kylie Jenner criticized Instagram by saying that Meta’s photo and video sharing platform is trying to mimic TikTok.
- Instagram clearly replaced TikTik with 118,700,000 downloads since its launch in 2020.
- India is one of the leading markets for Reels for Meta with a range of features from 30-60-90 seconds videos.
This week, Instagram faced criticism from users all across the world, including its most well-known users. Instagram introduced some new app features in response to the criticism that Meta’s photo and video sharing service is attempting to copy TikTok. On Monday, tensions among some of Instagram’s more than 1 billion users reached a boiling point when Kylie Jenner, the third-most-popular user with 361 million followers, and Kim Kardashian, the seventh-most popular with 326 million, both shared a meme calling for the app to get back to its original name of “Instagram.” “Stop trying to be TikTok, I just want to see lovely pictures of my buddies,” the trend continued.
Two years before, when India banned the Chinese apps, the Instagram reels feature saved the content creators. Instagram’s efforts to displace TikTok also became successful. The proof is the data shared by Sensor Tower that as of January, Instagram has been the most downloaded viral short video social media app in the nation on both the App Store and Google Play. According to the information, between January and June in the country, Instagram had downloads of 118,700,000, Facebook had downloads of 86,600,000, and popular domestic short video apps saw downloads of 24,200,000 to 40,800,000.
When TikTok was active in India, Aditya Gurwara, cofounder of the influencer marketing company Qoruz said that it changed the way people used and received content for information and entertainment. “They proved that the short video format was here to stay,” he said. “Instagram capitalized on that with the TikTok ban. Today, Reels are one of the most popular ways of consuming content. 90% of the influencer marketing is on Reels. Unlike other apps, Instagram already had a user base, so it didn’t have to start from scratch. They also have years of experience with the algorithms.”
Following the TikTok shutdown, Instagram moved quickly to make a profit with its short video format called Reels. Following the TikTok ban, Facebook’s photo-sharing platform Instagram opened a new tab for Reels exclusively for Indian users in September 2020, two months after debuting Reels in India through a “wide test.” India is one of the major markets for Reels for Meta, according to a Meta representative. The spokesman continued by stating that Maybelline and L’Oréal have both used Reels advertisements to boost their recognition among young consumers.
Reels’ growth in India was first covered by Business Insider India, which credited unnamed sources with the information. The extension is still a “test,” it claims. But it’s clear that the test was a huge success. The following features on Instagram have been updated as a result of the app being accused of “mimicking”
- Posts will now be displayed to users in full-screen mode.
- Additionally, it will reduce the impact of algorithm modifications that caused users to see a flood of videos from accounts they do not follow in their news feeds.
- After users complained about getting content recommended from accounts they don’t follow, Instagram decided to minimize the number of recommended posts.
We are yet to find some more exciting features by the Meta app to make Instagram, the “Instagram” again.
