If there’s one thing Meta is known for, aside from apps like Facebook or Instagram, is also for trying to shamelessly capitalize on competing social media apps when they’re at a low point. Now, it’s trying to do the same thing to TikTok, despite the fact it tried to do that once already.
Meta is offering a sort of “affiliate program” to creators with a big following on TikTok to prioritize Reels on Instagram and Facebook instead. Meta is offering exclusive deals with bonuses ranging up to $5,000 over three months to select creators who agree to prioritize posting their short-form videos on Reels before sharing them elsewhere. In addition to this, they would also get access to Facebook’s monetization platform, a free year of Meta Verified to get a blue check on their accounts, and content deals so they can more easily grow their audience on Facebook and Instagram.
In case you’ve missed it, TikTok was briefly shut down in the US before turning itself back online thanks to promises by the incoming Trump administration, which would be inaugurated just one day later. Then, President Trump signed an executive order that instructed the Attorney General to not punish TikTok under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act for 75 days while it figures out what to do with it. While the apps themselves are already usable, they are still unlisted from both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, and it looks like Meta wants to capitalize on this by every means possible.
This is not the first time Instagram tries to lure TikTok creators to switch platforms. However, financial incentives like these have proven to be short-lived in the past. In 2021, Instagram launched a Reels bonus program, only to drastically reduce payouts in 2022 and eventually discontinue the program altogether in 2023. It’s not an amazing track record, and it’s probably something a lot of TikTok creators will keep in mind when considering this offer. Some TikTok creators have also expressed dissatisfaction with Meta’s recent policy changes, particularly concerning fact-checking, so it’s not clear if these incentives will be enough to assail these concerns.
It should also be noted that this comes as part of a larger push to make Instagram more “TikTok-like.” Instagram has recently rolled out a slew of updates seemingly designed to appeal to TikTok’s user base. These include extending the maximum length of Reels to three minutes and changing profile grid layouts to rectangles rather than squares. It even notably unveiled a competitor to CapCut, a mobile video editor owned by ByteDance and which integrates with TikTok, although that particular app will roll out later.
Still, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out Instagram is trying to attack TikTok while they’re hurt—while the app is having trouble with the US government. Aside from Instagram rolling out Reels as a TikTok competitor while the app was exploding in popularity, it hasn’t really tried too hard to dethrone it other than a few concerted efforts. Meta has a long history of trying to shamelessly copy popular social media formats to try and take its users for themselves.
Back when Elon Musk purchased and took over Twitter, now X, Meta tried to appeal to people looking for alternatives with the launch of its own micro-blogging platform, Threads. And back when BeReal was popular, Instagram also tried to roll out a couple of features to copy it (although in fairness, TikTok did it too). Instagram was successful in copying Snapchat’s story format and outperforming that app, but it has tried the same formula with countless novel social media concepts—and it has had mixed results in the process. We’re not sure if this renewed push will actually make progress towards actually displacing TikTok. That’s probably really hard unless the app actually suddenly dies, considering its popularity, but hey, at least that won’t stop Mark Zuckerberg from trying.
Source: TechCrunch, The Information via The Verge
