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Instagram has today officially launched "Reels," a new short-form video service set to rival TikTok, in over 50 countries, including the U.S., India, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, and the U.K. Reels is part of the Instagram camera of the existing Instagram app.

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Instagram says that Reels are "a new way to create and discover short, entertaining videos." The service features the ability to record and edit 15-second multi-clip videos with music from the Instagram library, AR effects, and various new creative editing tools. Reels can be shared with followers on "Feed", or for public accounts, made available to all users worldwide via a new space in "Explore." Reels' most significant difference from TikTok is supposedly its tie-ins to the overarching Instagram ecosystem.

Last month, it was reported that Instagram was offering significant cash incentives to TikTok creators to persuade them to move to Reels. Incentive payments for some were claimed to be in the "hundreds of thousands of dollars," with the highest payouts for creators who commit to posting their videos exclusively to Reels. The move was a clear indication that Instagram views Reels as a direct competitor to TikTok. In April, YouTube announced "Shorts," a new service that will also replicate the short video format to compete with TikTok.

"I think TikTok deserves a ton of credit for popularizing formats in this space, and it's just great work,” Instagram's product director, Robby Stein, told The Verge. "But at the end of the day, no two products are exactly alike, and ours are not either."

The company's line on similarity with TikTok is similar to the approach taken with "Stories," launched in 2016 as a competitor to Snapchat. Instagram Stories soon had more active daily users than Snapchat itself.

The launch of Reels comes as TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, faces immense scrutiny in the United States, and Microsoft negotiates a purchase of the service.

Article Link: Instagram Launches TikTok Competitor 'Reels'
 
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God bless those innovative minds at Facebook

Yes, innovation only to develop the retard on people. It reminds me THX1138 when the man says... "I am taking this pill to not to think, soon I won't be able to think at all!!!" As a friend of mine told me last week: do you remember when you use to work with people who was bright?
 
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A company totally bereft of innovation. Have they actually had a single original idea in the last ten years? They just see what's successful and then clone it. No Wonder. 99% of their efforts are spent finding more ways to intrude into your life and monetise your data.
 
There are plenty of tiktok competitors already, such as “vineyard - compilations”, but Instagram just has the financial wallet of Facebook to build the user base.
 
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Today's social media - built for the 15 second attention span.

It wasn't that Quibi's short videos were too short. It was in fact that they were far too long.

This all follows nicely with Netflix increasing the speeds of their media because who really wants to sit through an entire Netflix original?
 
Few know that MSFT funded it, after they got wind weeks ago that Trump would ban TikTok.

Intended to help drive the acquisition price down !
 
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