[팩플]’TikTok Copycat’ Insta Lils landed in Korea… Will YouTube and TikTok threaten?

Instagram’s short form video feature’Reels’ was released in Korea on the 2nd.
Reels is a video production tool that can shoot short images of 15 to 30 seconds and apply music, text, and augmented reality (AR) effects.
· Landing in Korea is late. Starting with Brazil in November 2019, it was first launched in 50 countries including Germany, France, the United States, Japan, and Australia from June to August last year.

① Instagram platformization
Insta has become an’all-in-one image platform’ with the addition of a release.
Functions supported by Instagram: Feed (space for leaving photos and videos), stories (photos and videos exposed to specific followers for only 24 hours), live (real-time broadcast), IGTV (long video), reels (short video), Shopping tags (link to product purchases), etc.

② Ad expandability
Instagram makes money from advertising. 90% of users follow a specific company. Corporate and brand accounts are a key indicator of user interests to others. Reels are likely to become flagship advertising products in the future. Vishal Shah, head of Instagram product, said, “As consumers and businesses get used to the Lil’s, we’ll be adding advertising features, and Lil’s advertising will be an important business.”
Releases are also exposed to non-followers through the’Release Tab’ (except for private accounts). It means that it is also passed on to communities that have completely different interests. Insta calls this’new discovery’.
· Competitive relations with YouTube and TikTok. In addition to fashion and beauty, where Instagram shows its strength, video services (OTT) such as Netflix and Kakao TV, which are easy to produce highlight videos, and sports industries such as NBA and professional baseball, are potential customers of Lil’s.

Because of the music copyright negotiations. “We released it in time to provide music (of the country),” said Shah. Insta introduced a music function in Korea from the 26th of last month.

Instagram does not disclose specific numbers. “Reels are still in its infancy,” said Shah. “We will definitely support them, and we have great expectations.”

Former TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer publicly criticized Lil’s in July of last year as “TikTok’s copycat.” Instagram about this:
·’Short form’ is being emphasized as a huge trend in the video market. At the conference for the Korean media on this day, Insta released statistics that “45% of all video feeds are short form in less than 15 seconds.”
· Director Shah said, “I appreciate that TikTok has grown the shortform market, but it is not the beginning.” “Good products come out through competition.”

Facebook released the short form video app’Lasso’ in 2018, but closed its business in June of last year. The cumulative number of downloads of Lasso in the U.S. was less than 600,000, 1.2% of TikTok’s daily users (50 million) (Sensor Tower). Insta said, “I learned a lesson that music functions are important through Lasso, and that it should be released as a’Instagram Internal’ function, not a separate app.”
· “The biggest strength of Lil’s is that it can meet more than 1 billion global users on Instagram,” said Shah.

Reporter Kim Jung-min [email protected]

If you want to review the news of the latest tech companies in three dimensions → https://url.kr/qmvPIX