Social
Facebook’s blatant TikTok clone is coming to the US
The company is testing Facebook Reels in the US, starting today.
Facebook has never been content with just being the biggest social media platform on the planet. For some reason, the company feels it’s necessary to develop new products almost constantly, and it has a tendency to draw inspiration from other successful platforms.
This time, the social giant has its sights on TikTok, with the introduction of Facebook Reels to users in the US. The company first released Reels on Instagram almost a year ago.
According to a new report from The Verge, Facebook has announced an expansion of its testing for the new Reels feature. Originally available only in Mexico, Canada, and India, users in the US will begin to see Reels showing up in their timelines starting today.
Just like TikTok, Facebook Reels are short-form videos that people can watch and share on the platform. Users can record Reels directly from the app, making them easily accessible.
According to the article mentioned above, the platform says it will “roll out additional bonus programs and seed funding” specifically for Facebook Reels creators, in addition to the $1 billion it pledged to pay creators during 2020.”
Facebook is calling its new Reels feature a way for people to “express themselves, discover entertaining content, and to help creators broaden their reach.”
Personally, it looks more like Facebook saw how much money TikTok is making off of our dwindling attention spans and had to get its piece of the pie. Either way, it looks like Facebook Reels is growing in popularity, and users in the United States will start seeing them soon.
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