Yikes.
Because they are desperate. Facebook has NEVER had any good original product ideas. Ever. Everything they’ve ever done was brought/stolen from somebody else, including Facebook. All the good things Facebook did are their open source stuff like React and GraphQL, which they don’t really make money off.
So now, they are running out of ideas to steal/buy, they probably wanted to buy TikTok with Trump’s help, but that failed, and they started a TikTok clone in Instagram Reels, that also failed, so they are trying to start a Twitter clone. No original ideas, EVER. It’s as simple as that.
Is it safe to say that reels has failed? It definitely didn’t eat tiktoks lunch but I’ve used reels loads without ever using TikTok. I think it largely an age/demographic thing.
Instagram is the only real brand they have left that’s not bleeding users quickly (I don’t know how they can make more money off Whatsapp), so that’s why they are branding everything with Instagram now.
Reels was forced on Instagram users, I don’t think they are getting any audience who got Instagram just to use reels.