Instagram chief says TikTok is the most formidable competitor the company has ever seen

Photo-sharing service Instagram announced Thursday morning that it’s bringing together two of its biggest priorities — online shopping and its new Reels short-form video feature, which competes with fast-growing social media network TikTok.Now businesses and creators can tag products when they’re creating a Reels video, and consumers can tap “view products” to buy them immediately or set them aside for later purchase.Bringing shopping into the video format aims to make Reels more engaging to consumers and more appealing to creators. It could also make ads more effective by giving consumers an immediate way to purchase the advertised products, in turn allowing Facebook to charge more for them. Long term, it could also contribute to a new e-commerce revenue stream for Facebook, which will eventually take a fee from each transaction, although it’s waived fees through the end of the year to help small businesses through the Covid pandemic.”It’s important to us that we create meaningful ways for creators to make a living on Instagram, because otherwise they’re going to go to the competition” like Snap and Google’s YouTube, said Instagram chief Adam Mosseri in an interview.”So it’s actually primarily interested in helping them better make a living, but also because…
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