TikTok is copying Facebook a year after Facebook copied TikTok

Katie Canales
Updated ·2 min read

  • TikTok is rolling out a Stories feature where users' videos will disappear after 24 hours.

  • The Instagram-like function comes after Instagram debuted its TikTok copycat, Reels, in 2020.

  • TikTok Stories shows how the largest tech platforms swipe ideas from each other, even amid scrutiny.

  • See more stories on Insider's business page.

TikTok is introducing TikTok Stories, a feature that allows users to post content that will disappear after 24 hours.

Sound familiar?

The company confirmed the new Instagram-like feature to Insider after a Twitter user posted screenshots of it online.

They said TikTok is "experimenting with ways to give creators additional formats to bring their creative ideas to life for the TikTok community."

It's yet another example of the tech industry's most popular platforms swiping ideas from each other even as Facebook, Google, and other Silicon Valley firms field allegations of anticompetitive behavior.

Instagram launched Stories in 2016 and quickly drew comparisons to Snapchat, whose platform already offered a 24-hour feature. Instagram Stories has become one of the platform's most active tools, with over 500 million people using it daily, according to data company 99Firms.

But since then, another power player emerged on the scene, as TikTok's popular short-form videos and its addictive algorithm won the hearts of millions.

Facebook took note - in August 2020, it debuted a TikTok copycat on Instagram, which it owns. Instagram Reels was the company's plan to compete with the ultra-popular app.

And it looks like TikTok Stories is the firm's answer to compete for eyeballs with Instagram.

As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in leaked emails, there are "a finite number of different social mechanics to invent" and "once someone wins at a specific mechanic, it's difficult for others to supplant them without doing something different."

Zuckerberg reportedly made the comment in a series of 2012 emails that showed he viewed Instagram as a threat that could eventually harm Facebook's business.

Facebook bought Instagram later that year for $1 billion.

Read the original article on Business Insider