Facebook is also falling back on a familiar strategy: looking more like its competitors. This month, Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, said the app would make changes to keep up with the popularity of video-sharing apps. That includes tweaking Instagram’s algorithm to begin showing users more videos from people they don’t follow — in other words, doing what TikTok does.
“We’re no longer a photo-sharing app,” Mr. Mosseri said in an Instagram video this month. (He later tweeted that Instagram wasn’t abandoning photos, but leaning in to video.)
Facebook is building out other products to draw all kinds of creators, from writers to podcasters and beyond. Last month, it unveiled Bulletin, a newsletter service aimed at attracting independent writers and authors to build their audiences on Facebook. It has also released Audio Rooms, a feature where people hold live audio chats with fans and followers. The company is using these tools to target the podcasting market and compete with apps like Clubhouse and Twitter “Spaces.”
Lately, Mr. Zuckerberg has also leaned into viral memes about himself. He recently posted a photo of a surfboard he commissioned, with an artistic rendering of his face covered in stark white suntan lotion, a meme that circulated widely online last year.
Over the Fourth of July weekend, Mr. Zuckerberg also tried creating a meme of his own. He posted a video of himself on Facebook surfing on a hydrofoil in Lake Tahoe, Calif., clutching a giant American flag waving in the wind. The video was set to the sounds of John Denver singing “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”
Creators pounced; it became meme-ified almost instantly.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/12/technology/facebook-creators-tiktok-youtube.html
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