London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Instagram is realizing it's not so easy to knock off TikTok

Instagram is realizing it's not so easy to knock off TikTok

It took less than six months for Instagram's Snapchat clone to catch up to its rival's audience size and be credited with stunting Snapchat's user growth just as the company prepared to make its Wall Street debut in 2017.

But Instagram and its parent company Facebook (FB) are having a harder time doing the same to TikTok.

Instagram launched Reels, a short-form video product, in the United States on August 5, days after former President Donald Trump announced plans to ban Chinese-owned TikTok in the country, sending panicked users scrambling to find alternatives.

Six months later, it isn't taking off in the way the company had hoped. TikTok has outlasted the Trump administration and continues to be popular, with roughly 100 million users in the US, a significant impact on American pop culture and a loyal mix of influencers who don't seem to be going anywhere.

Unlike with Stories at this point in its history, Instagram has not released any metrics about Reels so far.

"TikTok is light years ahead of Reels," said Evan Asano, CEO of influencer marketing agency Mediakix, referring to TikTok's powerful content recommendation system and the fact that the app is far more focused than Instagram's, which has a growing list of competing video offerings.

Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, recently admitted Reels had work to do and hinted at a need for Instagram to simplify or consolidate its various video product offerings.

"I'm not yet happy with it," Mosseri said in a Verge interview last month about Reels. "We're growing both in terms of how much people are sharing and how much people are consuming, but we have a long way to go."

Facebook has come under scrutiny from regulators and critics for its aggressive approach to acquiring or cloning rivals to maintain its dominance in the social media market. But Instagram's early struggles to take on TikTok is a reminder that a number of Facebook's copycat products have flopped or come up short. Building a clone is easy; creating a vibrant community is not, even for the social media giant.

Instagram has made some tweaks to the product since launch, including giving Reels its own dedicated tab on the Instagram home screen and adding more editing tools. But Instagram Reels largely remains a home for TikToks' greatest hits, with many people reposting popular TikTok videos with the platform's trademark watermark to Reels. It's common to scroll through Reels videos and see one TikTok video after another.

Instagram redesigned its home screen to include a dedicated button for Reels.


"Everyone will always tell me 'I'm going to go film TikToks,' but they never say 'We're going to film Reels,'" said Parker Pannell, a 17-year-old with 2.4 million TikTok followers who thinks of posting to Reels as an afterthought. "TikTok creates the trends, they build up new creators, people build their most loyal followings [there]. People are so indulged in this environment of TikTok, they're not ready to transition to another platform like Reels."

It's not the first time Instagram has struggled to gain traction with video. In 2018, it rolled out a new long-form video feature and standalone app called IGTV, in a bid to better compete with YouTube, but it had trouble taking off. Instagram eventually removed the IGTV button from the top of people's feeds because hardly anyone was clicking on it. Now IGTV videos are part of the main feed.

With Reels, Instagram has tried to replicate much of what makes TikTok popular, including editing effects and the ability to add music or a background sound. But what's harder to emulate is TikTok's powerful "For You Page" and its algorithm, which serves up videos tailored to each user's interests.

"I would never count Instagram out in any way. They are usually laser focused on how to stay on top of the competition," said Karyn Spencer, CMO of influencer agency Whalar and the former head of creators at shuttered short-form video platform Vine. "At the same time, I don't think any of us experience the same type of algorithm on Instagram that we currently experience on TikTok."

The slower start with Reels may also highlight a broader issue with Instagram. "Doing the simple thing first" was long a mantra for the company, but some social media experts say the app has increasingly become more complicated and confusing as more and more features are rolled out. And it's difficult not to feel Facebook's influence, especially since Instagram's founders left in 2018.

TikTok's simplicity gives it a "big advantage," said Mediakix's Asano, adding that Instagram now has shopping capabilities, Stories, Reels and other video formats, which he feels end up competing with each other.

"Pretty soon you end up with a monster that nobody can understand," he said.

Comments

Oh ya 5 year ago
Good dump anything that zucker owns and show him and the other tech giants they do not own you or the world. Signal is a great replacement for whatsapp

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
×