The War is on Between TikTok and Facebook

Zuck and the Facebook machine have been the king of the social media hill for quite some time. The Newest competitor to hit the arena, however is making a hard play for the crown. That competitor is TikTok. The rebranded musical.ly hit the scene in 2018 and since has become one of the most downloaded apps in both the play store and the app store. And so begins the war between TikTok and Facebook.

Fight Hard, Fight Dirty

Sure, competition will happen, but stealing employees? Low blow or nah? TikTok has hired 12 former Facebook employees, along with several former Google, Hulu and Apple employees. Rumor has it that they offered Facebook emplyees 20% more to come work for them! To add fuel to the fire, the company also moved into The old Whatsapp office in Mountainview, California (Whatsapp is owned by Facebook).

Facebook Counter Punch Misses

Facebook launched it’s own video app in 2018 called Lasso (Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of it, nobody else has, either). The app was to be a direct competitor to TikTok. It failed. The app has had about 500,000 downloads since launch, compared to TikTok’s 500 million. Lasso never built the momentum that TikTok had and considering TikTok’s Chinese counterpart Douyin launched two years prior, facebook may have been too late. Facebook is taking a second stab a TikTok through Instagram. Clips, or Reels is an in app Instagram feature which will allow users to make short videos to music. Reels has already been launched in Brazil and possibly in Mexico.

Truly, the war is on Between TikTok and Facebook. Which do you think will win?

Author: Donnell Peavy