TikTok has made it clear that it is not interested in copying Facebook because it is not a social network but an entertainment platform, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg seeking to make Facebook and Instagram more like TikTok.
Blake Chandley, head of global business solutions at TikTok, told CNBC that Facebook is a social platform.
“They base all their algorithms on the social graph,” Chandley was quoted as saying. “This is their core competency. Ours is not.”
“We are an entertainment platform. The difference is big. Big difference.”
Owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, TikTok is also gaining popularity among teens around the world.
To take advantage of TikTok, Meta-owned Instagram is testing a new full screen data feed mode and an updated navigation bar.
The test, which was rolled out to a “limited number of people” according to Meta spokesperson Seine Kim, is the platform’s latest effort to compete with TikTok when it comes to social video.
Facebook employees have reportedly been directed by top executives to alter the platform’s algorithms to make it more like its Chinese arch rival, TikTok, which is gaining massive popularity among teens.
Another employee directive is that after years of splitting Messenger and Facebook as separate apps, the two will be brought back together, mimicking TikTok’s messaging functions.
The company understands that the short video platform Reels is not enough to threaten TikTok.
TikTok users are spending more time on the app than ever before.
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