WSJ Reveals Instagram's Big Mistake for Doing Tiktok-ification, Meta Spokesperson Denies

Instragram is trying to become TikTok. (photo: twitter @instagram)

JAKARTA - Instagram's attempt to take over TikTok's role in the social media market has been accused of costing the platform millions of dollars. From countless app updates, and outrages involving the most famous people on the planet.

They are generally angry because the desired direction of the platform is not clear. Even so far after various attempts, Instagram has not been able to catch up to the company it wants to pursue, TikTok.

An internal Meta document obtained by The Wall Street Journal paints a picture of Instagram struggling to prosecute creators when Reels crashed. Compared to the 197.8 million hours users spend on TikTok a day, Instagram users only spend 17.6 million watching Reels. This is less than a tenth, according to the document titled, “Creators x Reels State of the Union 2022.”

The report according to The Wall Street Journal, published in August, said Reels engagement has fallen 13.6 percent over the past four weeks, and "the vast majority of Reels users have no engagement at all".

The main problem for Instagram is the lack of original content on Reels because almost a third of videos are created elsewhere, with a watermark or something about it. Recycled TikTok content has been bugging Reels for a while. Instagram even came right out and said it was downgrading content reposted in recommendations.

To attract people to create content for Instagram and Facebook, Meta has allocated US$1 billion (IDR 14.8 trillion) for content creator payments by the end of the year. Even the creators of Instagram Reels have earned a total of $120 million so far.

Meta spokeswoman Devi Narasimhan told The Verge that time spent watching Reels compared to TikToks in the report is out of date and not global, but rather reflects “moment-in-time snapshots.”

“We still have work to do, but content creators and businesses are seeing promising results and our monetization growth is faster than we expected as more people are watching, creating and connecting via Reel than ever before,” Narasimhan said, as quoted The Verge.

“Reels engagement is increasing month-on-month overall, and the $120 million figure is outdated and misleading,” Narasimhan said. But he declined to share the updated numbers or provide more context.

Because Meta has made Instagram more like TikTok, the social media user has rebelled. In July, a viral Instagram post pleaded with the platform to "stop trying to be TikTok". It was also reposted by Kylie Jenner and Kim Kardashian and liked by millions.

The post forced the platform to respond and undo some of the proposed changes. There is growing discontent from longtime Instagram creators such as photographers and advocates, who have expressed frustration at the hard pivot to Reels.

A report obtained by The Wall Street Journal said that the percentage of Instagram users who believe the company “cares” for them has dropped sharply in recent years, from 70 percent in 2019 to around 20 percent earlier this summer.

Narasimhan said the figures were inaccurate and did not reflect company data but did not expand on them.

Like it or not, Meta will continue with TikTok-ification of Instagram and Facebook. Companies are all on Reel, and users will see more and more recommended content from accounts they don't follow. Hopefully the content isn't showing up on the For You page yet.