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By Liu Qinghua
Source: Zhixiang Network (ID: passagegroup)
In 2022, Facebook's life will be more and more difficult, but its attention is not less. Recently, it has quietly opened an account on TikTok, its largest competitor. In just a few days, without promotion, it has accumulated 466000 fans. You know, there is no content under this account at present.
What is Facebook doing? Many people are speculating. To observe competitors? For advertising? Or to catch young users?
Originally, as the social media platform with the largest number of downloads in the world, TikTok was not surprising to open an account on it, but the problem was that it was Facebook that regarded TikTok as a "thorn in the side". It's like that the old boss was overtaken by rising stars, and could not be suppressed or caught up. Suddenly one day, I went to the rookie's home as a guest, attracting a wave of people to watch the excitement.
What medicine does Zuckerberg sell in his gourd?
Easiest powder swelling
When you open the Facebook account page, you can say "nothing". There are no published content, no following account, no growing number of fans, and a Facebook application link to Google play. If it is not the pure big V certification with blue tick on the user name, it is really doubtful. Is it a fake number?
However, the biggest information point and interesting place is its account profile - we believe people can do more together, than alone.
Is Facebook going to move forward with TikTok?
Source: TikTok account homepage of Facebook Shortly afterwards, a spokesperson for Meta, the parent company of Facebook, vaguely responded, "The brand will use various channels, including social media platforms, to contact and interact with people who use its products and services. Our intention to build a brand image and cultivate a community on TikTok is no different."
As for its specific plan for TikTok account, for example, what kind of content will be released and whether it will run advertisements, it did not disclose half of it.
After these days, there has been no movement on Facebook account. Many people may want to see what Facebook really wants. After all, Zuckerberg is known to regard TikTok as the biggest threat.
Moreover, Facebook is not the only Meta account on TikTok. Before that, Instagram just launched an Instagram Creators account.
Last month, Facebook's parent company Meta officially launched Reels, a global short video application, directly benchmarking TikTok, and was even accused of being a plagiarist of the latter.
Meanwhile, Facebook is losing its appeal to users. According to the data reported in the last quarter, the number of monthly active users has stopped growing, and the number of daily active users has declined for the first time. In a conference call, Zuckerberg reiterated the influence of TikTok, "TikTok is a strong competitor, and it is growing at a very fast speed."
So is Facebook using TikTok to enrich its Gen Z user base? Maybe before Facebook takes action, the fog will always cover its real intention.
Ignore, imitate, suppress, catch up
Facebook, founded in 2004, was initially the world's leading photo sharing site. In 2012, it acquired Instagram, and in 2014, WhatsApp was also included in its portfolio, becoming a social giant. Although Facebook has considerable market resources, in recent years, the growth of users is basically concentrated in the middle-aged and elderly groups, and it is powerless in the young group market.
At the same time, in 2017, byte hopping opened the door of the American market, and successively acquired the well-known short video applications Musical.ly and Flipgram in North America. As soon as TikTok was launched, it attracted audiences at all levels, thus opening the overseas development mode of "riding the wind and waves".
In fact, when TikTok first entered the social market, no one cared too much, and Zuckerberg also despised it. In a leaked recording a few years ago, Zuckerberg once compared TikTok with Instagram's Explorer tag, which means that TikTok will not pose a threat to any of its platforms.
But I got up at the sight of TikTok, which can be said to be popular in the United States, especially among the most dynamic youth groups. It's impossible for Facebook to ignore it. So, Facebook offered its usual trick of launching competitive products, which is to imitate. Previously, it successfully responded to the rise of Snapchat.
In November 2018, Facebook launched Lasso, a short video application, which is very similar to TikTok in design and content, and is even called "fake TikTok" by American media. However, the download volume during the same period was far less than TikTok, and it ended up in the public opinion.
Ryan Hoover, a venture capitalist and founder of Product Hunt website, said that once users understand that Lasso is a Facebook product, they will connect it with the older community and culture on the platform and reject it. He also said: "TikTok is not as burdened as Facebook, which is the biggest attraction for teenagers."
Shortly thereafter, Facebook launched Instagram Reels, a short video application, in more than 50 countries around the world to challenge TikTok again, but it has also been tepid.
TikTok's voice is getting higher and higher, but Facebook is frustrated in the development of short videos, and Facebook can't hold its breath anymore. COO Sheryl Sandberg once said publicly that TikTok is the biggest threat to Facebook.
Unable to imitate, Facebook began to discredit TikTok frequently in public, saying that it endangered the national data security. The US government began to carry out strict review on TikTok, and TikTok was once forced to withdraw from the US market.
Kevin Mayer, then CEO of TikTok, once accused Facebook of using patriotism as a cover to try to drive TikTok out of the market in an unfair way. He said in an article: "We welcome competition. Fair competition makes all of us better. However, please let us focus on fair and open competition to serve our consumers, rather than the slander attack of competitor Facebook."
Mayer's comments come at a time when Zuckerberg will attend the antitrust hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee (HRJC). At the hearing, Zuckerberg tried to play up the "danger" of Chinese technology companies dominating the network field. At the same time, he also took the opportunity to point at TikTok.
In the case that TikTok may be banned in the United States, Instagram under Meta (also called Facebook at that time) "took advantage of the fire" and used heavy money to dig TikTok users into its social platform. Sources said that Facebook paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the most popular creators on TikTok.
But in the end, TikTok's parent company's bytes beat a lawsuit against the U.S. government, and TikTok survived tenaciously and continued to lead the trend of social media in the United States. According to official data, TikTok's global monthly active users reached 1 billion in September 2021. In 2021, it will become the first mobile app download in the world.
Facebook is not idle. According to the Wall Street Journal, Meta has increased its pursuit of TikTok. On February 22, 2022, Facebook will launch Reels, a short video product, for all users around the world, and launch many new functions for advertisers. Zuckerberg announced on the previous financial report conference call that more and more users are spending time on Reels, which has become the fastest growing content form of Meta so far.
Is Facebook losing the competition with TikTok
Reels may be the only action Zuckerberg can give confidence to the outside world in the process of competing with TikTok.
All kinds of data have proved that Meta is losing the advantage of its main position in the competition against TikTok. Meta's financial report for the fourth quarter of 2021 shows that the number of Facebook daily active users has declined for the first time in 18 years. In the quarter, Facebook's global daily active users were 1.93 billion, down 500000 month on month. As the number of active users decreased and the growth of advertising revenue slowed down, Meta's stock price plummeted by 20% after the financial report was released, and its market value shrank by $200 billion.
Although the number of users of Instagram, another social ace of Meta, still keeps growing, it also shows a declining trend in the competition with TikTok. Especially for young users, TikTok is obviously more attractive.
A Forrester survey shows that in 2021, 63% of Americans aged 12 to 17 will use TikTok every week, up from 50% a year ago. At the same time, the proportion of people using Instagram will decline from 61% in 2020 to 57% in 2021.
Although Meta has a bonus plan of up to billions, Tiktok has a stronger content atmosphere for young people, including creators and users. Especially during the epidemic, many humorous and funny content on this platform is very helpful for young people at home to pass the time.
The only thing Zuckerberg can praise now is that Meta's commercial revenue is higher than TikTok's, and the data shows that the revenue of the two is not at the same level. The financial report released in February shows that Meta's advertising revenue in 2021 is $114.93 billion. The media disclosed that TikTok's revenue in 2021 would only reach $4 billion.
Of course, the number of users is in place. Commercialization is more natural. According to media reports, TikTok is also accelerating its commercialization process. At present, TikTok's advertising business is undertaken by the official platform TikTok For Business. Blake Chandler, the head of commercialization, has been in Meta for more than 12 years.
In the foreseeable future, in addition to the competition between products and users, the two sides will also start the competition in the field of commercial customers, which may be the last thing Zuckerberg wants to see. (Zhixiang Network)
(Statement: This article only represents the author's view, not Sina.com's position.)
