In an apparent bid to win back its teen users, Facebook has launched Lasso, an app based on the model of TikTok, which lets users put up quick, short, shareable videos.
The app launched without much fanfare and was announced through a tweet from a product manager on the team.
“Lasso makes it easy for anyone to create and share short videos with fun effects,” the product description reads on the Apple store. “Follow creators, discover popular video trends and join in by putting your own spin on them.”
TikTok, a Chinese social media platform, is now globally recognized for the innovative ways in which it allows its users to share short videos. It has taken off among teens and recently became the world’s most valuable startup.
Lasso is going down a similar avenue, with some terming its features — “short-form, entertaining videos — from comedy to beauty to fitness and more”— as almost identical to TikTok’s. Lasso will allow 15-second long videos where users play songs in the background, according to Business Insider.
Even though it’s a stand-alone app, users can log in with their Facebook or Instagram accounts, and they can cross-post their Lasso videos on Facebook stories. A similar feature will soon be ready for Instagram, The Verge reported.
Facebook, once the dominant social media platform among America’s youth, has lost many of its teen users, according to a Pew survey from April 2018. Only 51 percent of teens said they use Facebook, while a significantly higher percentage said they use other social media platforms such as YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram. The Lasso app so far has 94 reviews on the Apple store, with mostly 5-star ratings; on the Google store, the reviews are mixed. But to what extent it’ll set itself apart from the world’s most valuable startup remains to be seen.
H/T The Verge
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