Image by: Brett Jordan
Facebook employees have been given a new directive to make the app’s feed more like TikTok, according to an internal memo from late April. According to the memo, Facebook’s main feed will start recommending posts regardless of where they come from, instead of prioritising posts from accounts that people follow. This is similar to how TikTok uses artificial intelligence (AI) to recommend short-form videos from across the platform to its users.
According to The Verge, executives at Meta have been closely tracking TikTok and had grown worried about the possibility that Facebook wasn’t doing enough to compete. TikTok continues to grow in markets such as the US, and has gained tremendous popularity among teen users.
So executives at Facebook are rethinking the feed entirely. For users, this means get ready to be flooded by more Reels, even from those who you don’t follow. This is similar to how Facebook began copying Snapchat as the latter started growing rapidly but the stakes could be even higher this time.
In February, Meta had announced that Facebook’s global daily active users declined from the previous quarter for the first time. The company posted weaker-than-expected forecasts at the time, blaming Apple’s privacy changes and increased competition from rivals including TikTok. This sent the social media giant’s shares plunging by almost 20 per cent.
Source: The Indian Express