Meta launches TikTok lookalike ‘Facebook Reels’ in 150 countries

Meta Platforms Inc. today announced that it’s launching Facebook Reels around the world with a raft of features to enable people to make money.

For some years now, the company has been talking about creating a competitor to ByteDance Ltd.-owned TikTok, and now it’s finally here. Reels had previously been released for Instagram and to a limited number of people on the Facebook app, but now the mission is complete, giving iOS and Android users in 150 countries the ability to make short TikTok-style videos via Facebook.

“Watching video is half of time spent on Facebook and Instagram, and Reels is our fastest-growing content format by far,” said Meta in a blog post. “We’re focused on making Reels the best way for creators to get discovered, connect with their audience, and earn money. We also want to make it fun and easy for people to find and share relevant and entertaining content.”

The videos that are produced will appear at the top of people’s News Feeds and can appear as part of Facebook’s Stories function. Stories themselves can be turned into Reels videos. Facebook Watch, which is a longer format video function, will also host Reels videos. At some point, Facebook will start asking users if they want to make a Reels video from their content, so any way you look at it, it’s going to become a big part of the Facebook experience.

As Meta promised last year, users will now have more opportunities to earn cash on the platform. Reels Play will have a bonus program, which is part of Meta’s $1 billion creator investment. The company says eligible creators through that program can earn up to $35,000 a month. There will also be options to earn from fans, as well as new monetization products.

“We’re starting with two formats: banner ads that appear as a semi-transparent overlay at the bottom of a Facebook Reel, and sticker ads: a static image ad that can be placed by a creator anywhere within their reel,” Meta detailed. “These non-interruptive ads enable creators to earn a portion of the ad revenue.”

The only drawback is that these monetization options are presently available only to users in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, although they should come to global users soon. Meta also says there are several new editing options, all of which sound like pretty standard fare.

Photo: Meta