During the company’s Q2 earnings call, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg credited Instagram Reels with increasing video engagement on the social media platform. Reels was announced back in August of last year, allowing users to record and edit 15-second videos before posting to Instagram. Earlier this week, Instagram confirmed Reels now supports videos that are up to 60 seconds in length.
Since its announcement, Instagram has been updating Reels to let users easily edit videos. In the long term, Instagram’s current goal is to take on rival TikTok as the dominant video-sharing platform. At the same time, TikTok continues to explore new avenues to bring people and companies to the platform with new features and tools, such as TikTok Resumes. While Instagram continues playing catch-up with TikTok, Facebook is hoping to leverage its reach as the dominant social media platform to lead the internet in a direction TikTok might not be equipped for yet.
“Video, in particular, is becoming the primary way that people use our product and express themselves,” Zuckerberg said during the company's Q2 earnings call this week. According to Zuckerberg, videos now accounts for 50-percent of the time users spend on Facebook, with Reels leading the charge. Thanks to the success of video features like Reels, Facebook is looking to add more monetization options to its video tools as the company tries to court creators looking to grow their audience and make a living. “People sent more than $50 million in stars to game stream creators going live on Facebook alone,” Zuckerberg said, which prompted the company to expand the types of video content stars can be sent to. Facebook also reported $29 billion in revenue during the call, indicating significant growth for the company.
What Does Reels Success Mean For Facebook?
Aside from eerily mimicking the ancient 'pivot to video' discourse, Facebook’s emphasis on video and attracting more personalities to the platform is the first step in the company's bid to create a metaverse. Zuckerberg describes the metaverse as an "embodied internet that you're inside of rather than looking at," according to Engadget. Despite its worldwide audience growing significantly, Facebook's growth in the U.S. appears to remain flat. Furthermore, CFO Dave Wehner warned revenue is expected to "decelerate significantly" in the second half of this year as companies like Apple continue letting users opt-out of ad targeting.
It would seem that ending the year with continued growth might not be guaranteed for Facebook and especially if ad revenue takes a hit. However, by creating a platform appealing enough to bring in a large stable of content creators, Facebook with the help of Instagram and Reels, may be able to continue growing.