For many Instagram users, reposting on Reels Recycling a video that first appeared on TikTok is quite practical and even natural. But Instagram disagrees. According to the platform, recycling videos “makes the experience on the platform less satisfactory.” Now, the social network must hide videos that have watermarks or logos from its competitor.
The news was announced in a post by @creators, announcing Reels' best practices. "We've learned a lot from surveying our community and observing how people interact with recommended videos on Reels. People tell us they want to see content that's fun, interesting, and entertaining. So we've created recommendations around that," the post says.
The measure received more than 29.900 likes on Instagram, demonstrating the support of at least some users for this new “good practice”, which will make low-resolution videos or videos recycled from other platforms, such as competitor TikTok, less visible.
Direct competitor
Let's state the obvious here: TikTok is a competitor to Instagram. And every TikTok video is an invitation to install the competing platform, and perhaps even leave Instagram behind. The company is interested in preventing this and it's not the kind of thing that will be said openly – because it could even lead to a lawsuit.
And it could backfire. From the user's perspective, the idea of having the user create (or recreate) a video exclusively for Instagram may be unpopular. After all, sometimes it's not possible to recreate the moment and the take has already aired on TikTok. Some effects are also not compatible with Instagram's own filters, which may discourage some people from creating videos exclusively for Reels, prioritizing the competition.
TikTok was created by the Chinese company ByteDance and experienced significant growth during the months of social isolation, surpassing 2 billion downloads worldwide at the beginning of the pandemic alone, about a year ago. Riding on this success, other platforms decided to opt for the dissemination of short videos and try to rival TikTok. Thus, TikTok was born. Reels, in August last year, on Instagram, and Shorts, in September, on YouTube.
Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. CNet, Instagram e The Next Web
Image: Daria Shevtsova / Pexels / CC
