So, it’s no mystery that Instagram has been in a heated battle against TikTok. The company has been heavily pushing its short-form videos called “Reels”(well, pushing them down our throats), and many legacy IG users were not too thrilled. Now, thanks to Adam Mosseri’s latest story, it appears that even he admits that there are too many videos on Instagram.
TikTok, while being labeled a major security risk by the American government, dominates the short-form video market. It’s been eating into YouTube’s, Snapchat’s, and Instagram’s user base since the first silly challenge took off. This spawned YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, Snapchat Spotlight, and probably a ton of obscure knockoff apps. You can say that TikTok has had a palpable effect on the internet culture as a whole.
Instagram CEO admits that there are too many videos on the platform
We’ve all noticed an uptick in videos on Instagram throughout 2022. Adam Mosseri addressed this as an answer during a Q&A (via The Verge). Since it was posted as a Story, it’s since expired. However, he said, “I think we were overfocused on video in 2022 and pushed ranking too far and basically showed too many videos and not enough photos.” That’s something that we’ve felt especially throughout 2022.
But, we shouldn’t entirely blame Instagram or Mosseri for this. Remember that Instagram is owned by Meta, and that company has also been butting heads with TikTok. The Mark Zuckerberg-owned company has made several strikes against TikTok, so you can imagine some significant pressure coming down onto Mosseri’s shoulders.
In any case, Adam Mosseri did say that the company is working behind the scenes to make things more balanced. That’s good news for people who typically upload photos to the platform. It may still be an uphill battle, as he also said, “To the degree that there is more video on Instagram over time, it’s going to be because that’s what’s driving overall engagement more…”
So, videos do drive more engagement for the platform, and engagement is the life’s blood for any social media platform. So, as much as people don’t like the new video-heavy direction that Instagram was going, it seems to be working. Throughout the year, we should, hopefully, see a more balanced platform.