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If Instagram wants to become TikTok so hard, apparently TikTok’s owner ByteDance is making what people want: creating a new Instagram.

Mancha

Mancha

alt account
Banned
Oct 23, 2021
2,520
This is getting a lot of traction in Brazil, and while the news are two weeks old, it went apparently unnoticed here on Era:


View: https://twitter.com/janetmachuka_/status/1547922869199417351?s=21&t=hJHRQVVlh6Rle37nyTvEgA


View: https://twitter.com/gadgets360/status/1547527894364082177?s=21&t=hJHRQVVlh6Rle37nyTvEgA

From The Drum:

ByteDance, the Chinese company which owns TikTok, is expanding its products with a shopping and lifestyle recommendations social media app.

The app, Kesong, launched last week and enables users to share photos and videos, along with fashion recommendations and shopping experiences.

The app is similar to Xiaohongshu, which is known as Red outside of China, a social lifestyle and e-commerce platform with more than 200 million users.

Xiaohongshu is often compared to Instagram for its influence on young people and its lifestyle focus.

Kesong is reportedly being led by Alex Zhu, senior vice president of product and strategy at ByteDance and former head of TikTok.
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Rough translation of what is getting reported here in Brazil:


View: https://twitter.com/levikaique/status/1552450356214382594?s=21&t=hJHRQVVlh6Rle37nyTvEgA

Levi Kaique says that "if this actually happens, I will laugh so hard", when commenting about the news that Kesong will be aiming for the more old Instagram like social platform experience. The translation to the tweet he is screencapped is roughly "While Instagram tries to become TikTok, the owner of TikTok will launch "Kesong", where users will be able to post photos and texts, similar to the heyday of Mark Zuckerberg's app. Eager to manage yet another social network?"
 

lucablight

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,554
These companies obviously hate each other. TikTok removed the ability to link your Instagram profile via the Instagram button in the last few updates.
 
Mr_Zombie

Mr_Zombie

Member
Oct 27, 2017
971
Poland
At least they are smart enough to create a new app instead of ruining the experience for their current users. 🙄
 
Yahsper

Yahsper

Member
Oct 29, 2017
1,527
Mr_Zombie said:
At least they are smart enough to create a new app instead of ruining the experience for their current users. 🙄
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This is one thing I don't understand about all this. They changed Facebook into Instagram, Instagram into Snapchat, Put Snapchatagram into Facebook, and now they're changing Instagram into Tiktok.

I realise they want to keep their userbase as much as possible and that their numbers were dwindling but...just have multiple apps. Meta is really gripping too tight on the 'WeChat-like one app to do everything' idea. Just keep Facebook for 'personal yet social' things like events, groups and marketplace, Instagram for pictures, create a Snapchat/Tiktok competitor for video, kill Messenger and fuse it with WhatsApp and make it the 'DM solution' glue between all these apps where your identity carries over if you want to use more than one app and where it gives you multiple profiles depending on who's contacting you (phone number for people you know, insta handle for Instagram, etc). There's your ecosystem. Snipe usercases and personal experiences instead of trying to shotgun trends.
 

Deleted member 10780

User requested account closure
Banned
Jan 16, 2022
1,366
That's hilarious. Now when IG dies, Meta can't even say, "okay trying to be tik tok didn't work, let's go back to our roots"
 
teruterubozu

teruterubozu

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,896
And the new photo app will become another video app in a year. I don't think the photo focused app thing is revivable. It's dead.
 
Royalan

Royalan

I can say DEI; you can't.
Moderator
Oct 24, 2017
11,963
teruterubozu said:
And the new photo app will become another video app in a year. I don't think the photo focused app thing is revivable. It's dead.
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But why is that? I've said this before, but this is the thing that I really don't get. Because recording and sharing video has gotten a lot more accessible, all of these apps are now acting like video is "replacing" photos. Like, videos are the future. That may be true -- it's nice having a halfway-decent camcorder in your back pocket -- but that doesn't mean photos are the past. People still take pictures. In fact, I'd wager the majority of people have more photos in their camera rolls than videos. Certainly, this is the case for everyone I know, including the younger people I know! The bar for whipping out your phone and taking a cool/cute picture of something is just way lower than doing the same for video, and that's still going to be the case for a while.

In fact, this has led to a really annoying trend I've noticed on TikTok (and IG) of people taking video of some static thing and having someone dance/point in front of it simply to justify it being a video.

It's like, people didn't stop reading books and graphic novels because motion pictures became a thing.

To me, this is just leaving a huge blindspot for another app to take advantage of. I and just about everyone I know have all these photos sitting in our camera rolls. Only difference now is we feel less compelled to share them.
 
teruterubozu

teruterubozu

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,896
Mancha said:
Yeah… no. There will always demand for pictures. I love me some TikTok but I miss seeing actual pictures from my friends.
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Of course there will be demand for pics. Heck we have Facebook. But I'm not sure a sole app for pics can be as large as instagram of old anymore. It's a long line of yesterpps including photobucket, tumblr, etc. Pinterest may be the only real remaining viable photo only app, and that's not saying much.
 
OP
OP
Mancha

Mancha

alt account
Banned
Oct 23, 2021
2,520
teruterubozu said:
Of course there will be demand for pics. Heck we have Facebook. But I'm not sure a sole app for pics can be as large as instagram of old anymore. It's a long line of yesterpps including photobucket, tumblr, etc
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You have Facebook. I mean I have Facebook too but I don't post anything there for the last ten years. It's not the same thing.


Royalan said:
But why is that? I've said this before, but this is the thing that I really don't get. Because recording and sharing video has gotten a lot more accessible, all of these apps are now acting like video is "replacing" photos. Like, videos are the future. That may be true -- it's nice having a halfway-decent camcorder in your back pocket -- but that doesn't mean photos are the past. People still take pictures. In fact, I'd wager the majority of people have more photos in their camera rolls than videos. Certainly, this is the case for everyone I know, including the younger people I know! The bar for whipping out your phone and taking a cool/cute picture of something is just way lower than doing the same for video, and that's still going to be the case for a while.

In fact, this has led to a really annoying trend I've noticed on TikTok (and IG) of people taking video of some static thing and having someone dance/point in front of it simply to justify it being a video.

It's like, people didn't stop reading books and graphic novels because motion pictures became a thing.

To me, this is just leaving a huge blindspot for another app to take advantage of. I and just about everyone I know have all these photos sitting in our camera rolls. Only difference now is we feel less compelled to share them.
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Well said.
 
teruterubozu

teruterubozu

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,896
Royalan said:
But why is that? I've said this before, but this is the thing that I really don't get. Because recording and sharing video has gotten a lot more accessible, all of these apps are now acting like video is "replacing" photos. Like, videos are the future. That may be true -- it's nice having a halfway-decent camcorder in your back pocket -- but that doesn't mean photos are the past. People still take pictures. In fact, I'd wager the majority of people have more photos in their camera rolls than videos. Certainly, this is the case for everyone I know, including the younger people I know! The bar for whipping out your phone and taking a cool/cute picture of something is just way lower than doing the same for video, and that's still going to be the case for a while.

In fact, this has led to a really annoying trend I've noticed on TikTok (and IG) of people taking video of some static thing and having someone dance/point in front of it simply to justify it being a video.

It's like, people didn't stop reading books and graphic novels because motion pictures became a thing.

To me, this is just leaving a huge blindspot for another app to take advantage of. I and just about everyone I know have all these photos sitting in our camera rolls. Only difference now is we feel less compelled to share them.
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And there are multiple reasons for being less compelled to share them. It's not just the lack of a platform. I know for me personally the whole toxic nature of social media has made much less interested in sharing my own personal stories/photos/visits/etc. There is a larger issue here that is preventing people from "sharing" these days.
 
teruterubozu

teruterubozu

Member
Oct 28, 2017
7,896
Rassilon said:
what about all the artists that make static artwork?
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all it takes is one ad to use video and these things get transformed. Unfortunately these social media companies are reactionary. They will move to whatever the users trend to. They don't make platforms that are static - they are always forever changing.
 
krazen

krazen

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,157
Gentrified Brooklyn
Royalan said:
But why is that? I've said this before, but this is the thing that I really don't get. Because recording and sharing video has gotten a lot more accessible, all of these apps are now acting like video is "replacing" photos. Like, videos are the future. That may be true -- it's nice having a halfway-decent camcorder in your back pocket -- but that doesn't mean photos are the past. People still take pictures. In fact, I'd wager the majority of people have more photos in their camera rolls than videos. Certainly, this is the case for everyone I know, including the younger people I know! The bar for whipping out your phone and taking a cool/cute picture of something is just way lower than doing the same for video, and that's still going to be the case for a while.

In fact, this has led to a really annoying trend I've noticed on TikTok (and IG) of people taking video of some static thing and having someone dance/point in front of it simply to justify it being a video.

It's like, people didn't stop reading books and graphic novels because motion pictures became a thing.

To me, this is just leaving a huge blindspot for another app to take advantage of. I and just about everyone I know have all these photos sitting in our camera rolls. Only difference now is we feel less compelled to share them.
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Yup. Portable video tech has been around forever -hell you have movies filmed with DSLR photo cameras…

…but people still mainly use those cameras for still photos. You can't beat a waiter taking a group photo after a dinner, you can't beat a candid street photo shot, motherfuckers spend more on wedding photogs than videographers. Its a market that's there to be served, and tbh its kinda hilarious watching everyone still try to pivot to video for engagement reasons when the ecosystems its all built on down to html code to the phone camera war is photo focused.

Like you said they can't just live on our photo rolls and group chats. Someone's going to reinvent the wheel and get paid now the market is wide open.
 
Calvin Leonard

Calvin Leonard

Banned
Sep 2, 2018
878
People will always want to see themselves (and others), so none of these platforms will ever really "die". Most of the differentiation comes from personal preference and the algorithms they use.

FB- regular photos
IG - high quality photos/video
TikTok - Live video/clips
SC- short video/clips
 
Parthenios

Parthenios

The Fallen
Oct 28, 2017
13,613
I hadn't noticed how shitty Instagram had got until I started posting more this week while on vacation. It used to be 100% photos from 90% people I followed (10% ads). Now it's almost 100% videos, all of the videos are from ads or "suggested" accounts (the people i follow still only post photos).

I spent 20 minutes ignoring the suggestions and ads, and when I was done, i counted the ignored and my feed would be one post from a friend, three suggestions, an ad, three suggestions, an ad, three suggestions, and an ad before showing me a post from someone I follow again (then repeat). The algorithm was not showing me anything I wanted and just trying to force video views on me.

If I wanted to be on TikTok I'd be on TikTok, not the crappy "we have TikTok at home" version.
 
DNAbro

DNAbro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
25,927
jwk94 said:
No they didn't? Facebook is still largely the same. It just has stories at the top. Even those are largely out of view
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I read something yesterday that they are pivoting towards something more like Instagram i.e you will mostly see videos and stuff the algorithm recommends.
 
Yeona

Yeona

Banned
Jan 19, 2021
2,065
If they're going to allow it to have video anyway, it'll just devolve into what Instagram became inevitably. People want a majority of photos and maybe a couple of videos but it seems most platforms' statistics show that this is just never possible unless they force it. Which they're not going to, because they like money. The only way to get that "pure experience" of a platform that primarily focuses on photography, plastic art or visual art is to ban video altogether, or join an app / website that's very small and where the community can easily find a consensus.

Does Tumblr allow for video?
 
gcubed

gcubed

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,785
DNAbro said:
www.resetera.com

[Business Insider] Facebook's and Instagram's new revamping could mean end of "traditional social network era" Spoiler

More at: https://www.businessinsider.com/facebooks-tiktok-inspired-changes-mean-end-of-social-network-2022-7?r=US&IR=T Share if old
www.resetera.com www.resetera.com

Here is the thread about it. Basically both FB and IG are becoming more like TikTok.
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I feel like FB has fallen off quick with TikTok. Anecdotal, but I don't know anyone who actively uses it anymore, they've moved to TikTok
 

Deleted member 10691

Banned
Dec 19, 2021
574
It is wild to see people clamoring to use something so bad for their health. The popularity algorithmic guided social media today, must be what cigarettes were like in the 60s: It is seen as cool, everyone is doing it, people realize it isn't good for them but don't really want to admit it.... and it is only a matter of time before regulation restricts usage.
 
Tugatrix

Tugatrix

The Fallen
Oct 26, 2017
3,263
Anytime I open FB or IG, ads ads everywhere and no posts from my friends, i actually have to enter their profile to find anything, this just shows how broken both have become
 
Spinluck

Spinluck

▲ Legend ▲
Avenger
Oct 26, 2017
28,480
Chicago
Rye-soakedhuskofaman said:
It is wild to see people clamoring to use something so bad for their health. The popularity algorithmic guided social media today, must be what cigarettes were like in the 60s: It is seen as cool, everyone is doing it, people realize it isn't good for them but don't really want to admit it.... and it is only a matter of time before regulation restricts usage.
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Yeah i know people my age that scroll TikTok for 3hrs straight. I'm already terrified when YouTube gets me to watch 3 straight videos and i barely notice.

So i completely avoided TikTok because that algorithm sounds like it's not fucking around.
 
Garp TXB

Garp TXB

Member
Apr 1, 2020
6,299
Spinluck said:
Yeah i know people my age that scroll TikTok for 3hrs straight. I'm already terrified when YouTube gets me to watch 3 straight videos and i barely notice.

So i completely avoided TikTok because that algorithm sounds like it's not fucking around.
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Same, I will never get TikTok. I'm not one of those pearl-clutching "Oh dear TikTok is destroying our minds!" people, but I have enough going on with my attention span with Youtube alone.
 
Ryuelli

Ryuelli

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,209
I'm not interested if it involves videos, that's what I have Youtube for. Give me an app that is strictly photos and allows me to sort posts by chronological order.
 
bbg_g

bbg_g

Member
Jun 21, 2020
800
Royalan said:
But why is that? I've said this before, but this is the thing that I really don't get. Because recording and sharing video has gotten a lot more accessible, all of these apps are now acting like video is "replacing" photos. Like, videos are the future. That may be true -- it's nice having a halfway-decent camcorder in your back pocket -- but that doesn't mean photos are the past.
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I think what partly contributes to this is simply the UI design and too much reliance on data. Of course videos and stories were going to get more engagement, its because they were put at the very top and easiest to access. It was also at one point the quickest way to see your actual friends most recent content chronologically. Then people start just hitting stories because its at the top and makes the most sense for them vs you have to now click through to get your following page, scroll past ads and then you can start maybe seeing your actual friends stuff. I think the design at the beginning really just made it more convenient for people to quickly see stories then into reels and then the data saying engagement is only in stories and videos. I'd imagine if they actually did some design that prioritized seeing images the engagement results would be different.


Megadragon15 said:
TikTok is definitely on the way to obsolescence. Hope they die quickly.
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Got any evidence of this?
 
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