TikTokone of the most famous social networks, is officially the model platform to be copied. Or at least second Facebookwho sent a memo to employees – leaked later – asking to make the social feed as similar as possible to that of TikTok.
Facebook has understood that TikTok is the social network to beat and copy at the same time
It can be said that TikTok have redefined the idea of social networks, specifically as regards the home page, also called “feed”. Precisely for this reason it seems that Facebook employees have recently received a new directive: make the app feed more like TikTok’s feed.
In an internal note at the end of April obtained by The Verge, the executive in charge of Facebook, Tom Alisonexplained the plan: Instead of prioritizing posts from accounts people follow, Facebook’s primary feed, such as TikTok, will start recommending posts from people who are not friends as well. And years after the separation of Messenger and Facebook, the two apps will be reunited, mimicking TikTok’s messaging functionality.
Combined with a growing emphasis on Reels, the planned changes show how strongly Meta is responding to the rise of TikTok. Platform that has quickly become a legitimate challenger to its dominance on social media. While Instagram has already morphed to look more like TikTok with its focus on Reels, executives are hoping that a Facebook-like treatment will reverse the app’s negative growth trend and potentially it will attract young people.
How will the Facebook feed change?
The head The Verge she managed to talk to Tom Alison to discuss the pressure Facebook and Meta generally feels from TikTok. Alison acknowledged that the company has been slow to see TikTok’s competitive threat. “I think the thing we probably haven’t fully seen is how social this format could be,” Alison commented referring to the Chinese app model.
According to information from The Verge, the future Facebook app will be disrupted to get closer to young people. The main board will become a mix of Stories and Reels on top, followed by the posts that the algorithm recommends from Facebook and Instagram. It will be an experience rich in video with clearer suggestions for sending posts to friends privately. Facebook is working to position Messenger messaging in the top right, undoing the infamous decision to separate the two apps eight years ago. In short, it is clear that Meta realizes that to really compete with TikTok, she must replicate the magical experience of the main page. “For you” of the competitor.
The numbers of TikTok speak for themselves
The strength of TikTok is his algorithm, which guesses the tastes of the user based on the habits of “passive viewing”. The proof is in the numbers: in total, the social network has been downloaded 3.6 billion times. According to estimates, TikTok downloads last year were 20% higher than Facebook’s, and 21% higher than Instagram. And during the first three months of this year, iPhone users on average spent 78% more time on TikTok than on Facebook.
Meanwhile, Facebook manages to have 2.94 billion monthly users, but its best days are over. The social media lost users for the first time ever at the end of last year and the average age is rising dramatically.
Alison, despite wanting to chase young people and make Facebook more engaging, is also aware that must not fall into the trap of copying too much TikTok. We must “maintain focus on our fundamental differentiation in favor of chasing short-term interests and trends,” comments an employee in the internal note.
Surely the challenge will be difficult: bringing young people closer to a social network that they have basically never used is a significant obstacle. But if Facebook finds the right balance between competitiveness and originality, perhaps, it will be able to win it.