The Big Bang Theory With Instagram’s New "Bonuses"
As it tries to thwart TikTok’s rapid rise, it appears that Facebook is still drawing inspiration from other platforms.
Snapchat launched Spotlight, a feed of short, TikTok-style video clips that lives in a dedicated tab inside the Snapchat app, in November to capitalise on the short-form video trend.
The format is well-known, and Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, already has Reels to handle this aspect. The fact that Snap is now paying out $1 million a day to the top Spotlight developers, in order to further fuel interest in the alternative, is the main differentiator of Spotlight.
Spotlight is now visited by 125 million Snapchatters every month, and some developers make a lot of money from their Spotlight clips. It’s been so successful that app researcher Alessandro Paluzzi discovered this announcement screen in the app’s back-end code, indicating that Instagram is considering launching a similar payment scheme.
As users post new Reels content, they will be able to ‘earn bonuses from Instagram.’ You’d then appear to have to meet such incentive requirements in order to receive ‘earnings’ from the programme, though developers will still be eligible for variable incentives.
The program’s explainer notes don’t explicitly state that users would be paid in cash, however it seems to follow the Snapchat Spotlight model of paying selected creators for their Reels contributions – albeit obviously based on upload volume rather than engagement/quality.
Which, to be honest, isn’t all that shocking.
For the last five years or so, Facebook’s product creation playbook has boiled down to two specific elements: ‘CTRL C’ and ‘CTRL V.’ When a site releases something useful, it’s a waiting game to see when Facebook can copy it, and with its unrivalled size acting as the ultimate allure, it’s been able to effectively negate and/or blunt competition using this strategy.
I mean, if anything works, there’s no excuse for Facebook to stop doing it – but in the case of TikTok, Facebook hasn’t been able to slow its momentum, with the Chinese-owned short-form video app shrugging off Facebook’s numerous replications and roadblocks to continue on its way to becoming the next billion-user social media site.
Facebook actually tried its very best:
- In 2018, Facebook released ‘Lasso,’ the first TikTok clone, with an emphasis on markets where TikTok had yet to develop an audience. Lasso was shut down permanently by Facebook in July of last year after the project failed to gain traction.
- Facebook has had even more success with Instagram Reels, its most direct attack on TikTok, which was launched in India just days after TikTok was banned in the country. Instagram is also figuring out how to make the most of Reels, with IG CEO Adam Mosseri reporting steady progress.
- Just like the launch of Reels, Facebook also offered some of the most famous TikTok creators lucrative offers to post exclusively to Reels. It’s uncertain how successful this has been in increasing Reel adoption.
- Facebook’s NPE team has also released many TikTok-like experimental applications, including ‘Collab,’ a music collaboration app, and ‘Bars,’ a rap-focused app, both of which are based around short-form video clips.
As part of Facebook’s strategy to slow the app’s development, all of these initiatives have been launched with TikTok in mind. However, Facebook’s most direct attack on TikTok is barely mentioned, and most people are probably unaware of it.
In conclusion, you can expect Facebook’s replication efforts to continue, and as more platforms discover new ways to develop and extend their own offerings, Facebook can continue to take inspiration from those concepts, while still pressing for more favourable government regulation. Being the largest and most well-resourced player in the space has its advantages.