The short video field is currently experiencing fierce competition. In TikTok's wake, several new short video services have emerged, such as Triller and Byte. Instagram also launched new similar functionality in August 2020, called Reels. It allows users to edit and publish short loopable videos.
According to American research (https://www.marketingcharts.com/digital/social-media-112790/attachment/pipersandler-teens-favorite-social-platform-apr2020-4), as many as 13% of teenagers say TikTok is their favorite social media platform. Although Instagram is still significantly ahead of this figure, TikTok has naturally become a formidable competitor to Instagram, which is owned by Facebook. This has certainly partly accelerated the launch of Reels.
TikTok remains a service primarily for young people and young adults. TikTok has approximately one million active monthly users in Finland (8/2020), and the majority of its audience here is under 24 years old. Compared to the arrival of previous social media channels, this is natural – young people tend to adopt new channels first, with older audiences following suit later. Ultimately, the competition is fought over consumer attention. It is likely that a large part of the older audience will not adopt TikTok usage and will find it more natural to use similar features in Instagram's Reels.
This can naturally affect whether the older audience moves to TikTok in the same way, and vice versa. Various publications about Instagram Reels' different technical features have been created, for example https://www.paladinsoftware.com/uncategorized/tiktok-vs-instagram-reels/.
We asked social media influencer Jenny Pitkänen what she thinks about Instagram Reels.
What do you think are the biggest differences between TikTok and Instagram Reels?
Reels seems to still be quite unknown for now. The functionality is quite difficult to find on Instagram, both as a creator and as a user. Additionally, Reels has less music and effects, which are important to TikTok users. On TikTok you can also easily find other users by navigating, for example, directly through songs, Reels doesn't have this feature.
How does the Reels user experience differ from TikTok from a content creator's perspective?
The concept and tools are the same in both services, but Reels is clearly still in its early stages of development, which of course affects usability, for example.
How do you see TikTok's role in relation to Reels?
Reels is a convenient tool for content creators who have an older follower base on Instagram and who want to maintain the status quo. In this case, the audience doesn't need to move from Instagram to new social media platforms.
In summary: we will continue to monitor Reels' commercialization and report as soon as the first interesting collaborations have been made. In any case, commercially speaking, brands now have an excellent opportunity to gain significant visibility through new types of content and new functionality.
