Facebook is signaling the possible transformation in its design characteristics, which in the future would look more like Tiktok. Facebook is primarily used to connect with family and friends, but due to the recent surge in users on Tiktok, the authorities at Facebook have decided to highlight the videos and reels from influencers, strangers, and celebrities on its feed page. The main purpose behind this transformation is to keep pace with the daily traffic on Tiktok which is continuously increasing day by day.
According to Michael Sayman, a software engineer who has worked at Facebook, Google, and Twitter, “Everyone’s eyes are glued to Tiktok and the way it works right now.” Tiktok, which is a short video-creating app, is owned by “ByteDance” and it has been reported that around 1 billion users are using this platform for entertainment purposes. Seeing this huge traffic on Tiktok, Zuckerberg and the team are making efforts to make people spend more time on Facebook. Only then would they be able to produce money as per their targets, which Zuckerberg plans to invest in the development of Metaverse, in the coming decades.
Due to the enormous amount of activity on Tiktok, profits of Facebook have considerably declined, though it is still the “world’s biggest social network”, with 3 billion users recorded each month. On the other hand, Zuckerberg called this transformation a “major shift” because the inclusion of reels will incorporate the addition of new algorithms through the use of AI technology. He calls it a “discovery engine.” Moreover, Zuckerberg has already warned about the upcoming threats of Tiktok to Facebook and said, “People have a lot of choices for how they want to spend their time, and apps like Tiktok are growing very quickly.”
Coupled with this, Saymen stated, “The company has little choice but to emulate what he calls TikTok’s massive talent show. Tiktok comes along and it’s like, who cares who you follow!” It has been noted that Instagram’s most followed celebrity figures, including Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian, recently uploaded their stories against the reformation of Instagram and Facebook and stated that they want to see the pictures of their friends rather than videos like Tiktok. They wrote, “Make Instagram Instagram again. Stop trying to be Tiktok. “
On the other hand, the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, while considering the concerns of users, said, “But we’re also gonna need to evolve, because the world is changing quickly, and we’re gonna have to change along with it.”