Recent changes to Facebook and Instagram have demonstrated how Meta is attempting to copy the characteristics of TikTok to capitalise on its success and mimic ad performance.  

These changes have seen the separation of news feeds and a hard push for video to compete with TikTok’s ever-growing dominance. This leads us to ask if Instagram is losing focus on what they were founded on, and will this cause them to lose a core base of their audience to push for a part of TikTok’s share in the short-form video space?  

Both platforms are easing into this change of layout, Facebook will still default to its main home view for now, with the ability to change to a personalised feed showing people you are connected with more frequently, and in chronological order.  

Instagram on the other hand changed its layout to what could be called a TikTok copycat only to roll it back after just 2 weeks. Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner spearheaded the campaign to ‘make Instagram Instagram again’, slamming it for being too similar to TikTok. 

However, these revisions have been hailed as a positive change by casual and business users alike. And, they will be made, as stated by Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri in a blog post of his own. Reels (Meta’s answer to TikToks) have grown recently (+30% in Q2), showing us that short-form video that is sorted and picked for us by algorithms (a system pioneered by TikTok) is the push Meta needs to boost traffic after their first ever quarterly revenue decline. 

So will Meta listen to their core audience who do not want this future? It will be interesting to see how they try and balance their consumer base at the turning point of social media. 

Written by Jack McEwan, Media Executive, december19