Reels are coming to Facebook!

[Dimaeiya333]

After a successful trial in the United States for almost 5 months, Facebook Reels has just been rolled out to the smartphones of the vast majority of users a few weeks ago. The new video format from the American giant - which competes with platforms such as TikTok and Youtube - is now available in more than 150 countries (including France) on iOS and Android. But this new feature is above all part of the platform's long-term strategy. Indeed, Facebook is trying to keep its users, who seem to have lost interest in the platform in recent years.


Why has Facebook decided to launch its own reels?
For several years now, the Meta group, with its flagship social networks Facebook and Instagram, has been losing ground to new platforms such as TikTok, which are seeing their popularity rates skyrocket day by day. It's very simple, the Chinese social network is experiencing such growth that it has seen its number of users double between 2019 and 2021 , to surpass the communication directors email list barrier of 750 million monthly users in 2022 .

TikTok's dazzling success is partly explained by the format and type of content offered by the platform. The social network favours short, funny and original videos in a vertical format (9:16) that resonates with its users. To counteract this phenomenon and attract more users, some platforms have decided to integrate a format similar to the already famous TikToks . Thus, in 2020, YouTube launched YouTube Shorts, and Instagram, Reels. Two features that have paid off, as they remain one of the most promoted formats on each of the respective platforms.

At the same time, the social network Facebook continues to lose momentum. So much so that in the last quarter of 2021, the American giant recorded a record loss of more than 500,000 users per day . So, to revive its flagship network, Meta has introduced a new feature: Facebook Reels. Until then tested only in a handful of countries, the medium enjoyed instant success , becoming the group's fastest-growing platform, ahead of Facebook and Instagram.

With such a successful testing phase, Facebook launched its new medium in over 150 countries simultaneously a few weeks ago, on February 22, 2022. And to make Reels compete with TikTok videos and YouTube Shorts, Meta has ut 2022 to attract creators from other platforms to the group's latest project. Similar to what streaming platforms Mixer and Facebook Live did to take market share from Twitch, Meta is promising lucrative contracts (up to $35,000 per month) to established creators who decide to join Facebook Reels.

Where do reels appear on Facebook?
To showcase its new media, Facebook has pushed reels into different places on the platform. They are now visible:

In Stories : Reel creators can share their videos in Stories with their friends to increase the visibility and reach of their videos. It is also possible to create Reels from existing Stories.
At the top of the news feed : On Android and iOS, a section to discover new reels is now visible just below the section where you find your friends' stories.
In the Facebook Watch tab : If there isn't a dedicated tab, Reels are visible in Facebook Watch. Facebook is currently developing tools to create Reels directly from the Watch tab.
In different places in the news feed : Just like on Instagram, banners with suggested reels are scattered throughout the news feed. This allows users to discover reels that the algorithm considers relevant, made by people they don't know.