Anticipating TikTok ban, Facebook launches Instagram Reels clone in US and 50 other countries

An opportunistic beneficiary of the US-China economic war, Facebook is speculating on a possible ban on the TikTok network in the United States by launching a clone of its own creation: Instagram Reels.

TikTok, the Chinese network that focuses on making funny videos with a musical

background, could disappear overnight in the US, a similar measure being already taken in India. Without trying to hide the source of inspiration, Facebook presents Instagram Reels as a friendly and safer alternative to TikTok services.

TikTok, forced exit from the scene

Used as an asset, the integration with the Instagram network comes to assure the users of the new service that the video posts distributed on Instragam Reels will make the image-based version of the Instagram profile better known and vice versa. In theory, the recipe could be a winner both for the Facebook administrator, who relies on a rapid rise of the new social service, but also for users who no longer have to divide their attention between two completely different social networks.

Like TikTok, Reels allows users to record short videos to edit and then select from a vast collection of image effects, audio effects and soundtracks.

Without too many subtleties, Facebook has prepared for TikTok fans an almost perfect clone of the social network to which they will just lose access. However, the official attitude is one of denying any similarities, the head of Instagram declaring that TikTok did not invent the concept of posting short videos at all, but missed it. As for the chosen launch date, the head of the Instagram product states that the apparent overlap with the TikTok network ban would be just a coincidence.

With 2.3 billion global metered installations for the mobile app and about 100 million users in the United States alone, TikTok is now the main rival of the Instagram network, which also has 100-150 million users. Globally, things are even worse, with Instagram numbering about 1 billion users.

Apart from the Facebook offensive, another large American company aims to take over directly the owner of TikTok – ByteDance, the details of the transaction publicly encouraged by President Trump will be communicated no later than September 15, 2020.