
Introducing Instagram Reels - theBashShell
https://about.instagram.com/blog/announcements/introducing-instagram-reels-announcement/
======
wojcikstefan
This flips the typical narrative of "Chinese companies copy our products and
their government lets them" on its head. I understand why this is a valid
business move, but I think that the sense of moral superiority over China that
is so pervasive in conversations with Americans is even less credible now.

~~~
pjc50
Realistically, a lot of companies copy each other's products and features,
within the American tech scene. The cure - software patents - is worse than
the disease; remember Amazon's one click patent?

How many team chat apps appeared after Slack, for example?

~~~
nicoburns
> The cure - software patents - is worse than the disease

Might that not also apply to preventing Chinese companies copying American
hardware products or manufacturing processes?

~~~
pjc50
Maybe? Intellectual property is a huge sprawling topic that arguably needs
different treatment for different kinds of thing. Do you have specific
allegations in mind?

------
matsemann
Copying snapchat to make stories. TikTok to make Reels. And fb originally
bought Instagram. Can the big players just copy or buy every competitor at
some point and remain on top?

~~~
cblconfederate
did they hurt their competitors by copycatting stuff? It seems like tiktok has
a different user base that does not overlap with the way ppl use instagram.

~~~
ceejayoz
> did they hurt their competitors by copycatting stuff?

They kneecapped Snapchat pretty effectively when they stole the story feature,
first in Instagram and then in Facebook proper.

------
thehappypm
Instagram Stories were not quite a Snapchat-killer, but they did take a huge
chunk of the Snapchat market share. This could be similar.

~~~
raiyu
They weren't a Snapchat killer but they immediately cut off future growth and
stalled it out for a solid 2-3 years.

You don't have to kill the competition in social to win, you just need to stop
their growth. They can retain some percentage of users but if the growth is
stalled out and you are dominate them in 5:1 marketshare it's as good as dead.

------
csours
Do it for the Reels?

I'm not sure the tone of Instagram really agrees with the content of TikTok,
which feels like it picked up where Vine left off.

~~~
robjan
The picture / TV sharing feature of Instagram is curated while stories tend to
be a bit more candid in my experience. Think this is trying to add another
level of more transient sharing.

------
rglover
Should've called it "Moments" or "Memes."

~~~
BiasRegularizer
I personally like the name Reels, it implies a level curation needed in the
process.

------
ChefboyOG
I wonder if this will work as well as Stories did. I mean, technologically it
will, sure, but if you start with the customer in mind, Snapchat is not
TikTok.

Instagram and Snapchat share the same market. Like Facebook, they originated
among college students, and became the default platforms of that young adult
demographic. Instagram copying Snapchat features is brutal to Snapchat because
Snapchat power users were probably Instagram/Facebook power users as well.

TikTok and Musical.ly, as has been written to death by tech journalists, are
much more dominate in a younger demographic. They're sort of unique among
social platforms in their ability to do so. I wonder if Instagram has enough
penetration in that demographic to really syphon off a meaningful chunk of
users, or if this will just block Instagram's existing users from migrating?

~~~
cameronbrown
Anecdata for sure, but my younger aged family members (and their general age
group) on TikTok are all on Instagram.

~~~
kenjackson
Another data point. My sons group are all on both, but no one actively uses
IG. TikTok is their app of choice. My son says IG is boring. I think Reels has
a major uphill journey.

------
Miner49er
I see the advantage of tying it in with Instagram, I think it will help user
growth early on, but I think it will likely inhibit growth later on. What
exactly are you signing up for when you sign up for Instagram? Are you signing
up for Reels, OG Instagram, or Stories? Stories at least sort of made sense
with the original Instagram, but Reels doesn't feel like a fit at all to me.
The bloat of the app at this point seems like a barrier to using it.

Maybe they'll be able to spin off a separate Reels app as well at some point?
That's the only way I'd ever be interested in it.

------
Spivak
I feel like IG missed the mark with the 15 second video limit if they want an
actual competitor to TT. The really really good TT content: original
songwriters and musicians, semi-pro chefs, artists, woodworking,
blacksmithing, skateboarding, sewing, just really passionate nerds teaching or
showing off their skills benefit from longer-form videos.

The format of TT has made it really easy for people to share their hobbies but
isn't plagued by the Wadsworth Constant.

------
caiobegotti
Who couldn't see this coming, honestly? Zero surprises and it's the obvious
move to try to consolidate a market in which they are pretty big already.

------
arusahni
I'm hoping, as they push more to support creation, they address their
compression/encoding on Android devices.

On my Pixel, the only way I can get high-quality videos in my stories is by
recording using the Camera app, and then sharing to Instagram. If I add any
text/sticker/overlay, the final video has obvious artifacting.

------
yalogin
Kinda lines up well with MS talking with tiktok. Wonder why MS wants tiktok
still? The US and India banned them and now Instagram copied them too. I do t
know how the inluencers move across social networks but why would users stick
to tiktok? In that scenario why would MS want it unless its for an extravagant
discount?

~~~
Kye
They might want the people working on it who know how to work with video.

------
romanovcode
I have to say they are really annoying in "Explore" tab because they take more
than half of the screen-space.

------
g5becks
I can remember a slew of video based apps that Instagram killed when it added
video in the early days - Viddy, SocialCam, Kik, Vine, they were all in
competition and Instagram came and ate their lunch, then did the same to
Snapchat, now tiktok.

------
strikelaserclaw
at what point is competition stifled when large companies can just totally
copy competition by throwing money at something. In ten years, we will have an
American Samsung.

~~~
jp57
It is an interesting definition of competition if you can stifle it by
allowing competitors who offer very similar or identical products.

When I was a kid that _was_ competition.

~~~
strikelaserclaw
i speak in the spirit of creating an environment that doesn't allow large
companies to destroy small companies by copying their ideas or buying them
out, which i believe is beneficial to society at large in the longer run. It
is my fundamental belief that if left unchecked, large tech companies will
become monopolies in their fields (which might already have happened).

------
xwowsersx
This is a response to TikTok, I guess?

