- Instagram has been working to compete with rival TikTok through Reels, its short-form video feature.
- An internal report reviewed by the Wall Street Journal shows that Reels lags far behind the competition.
Instagram has for months been trying to make Reels happen.
But according to an internal report reviewed by the Wall Street Journal, the short-form video feature is falling flat — and Instagram has a long way to go before it can make a dent in rival TikTok's market share.
The document, titled "Creators x Reels State of the Union 2022," shows that of the 11 million creators on the platform, only about 20.7% post on Reels each month — and "most Reels users have no engagement whatsoever."
Meanwhile, while TikTok users cumulatively spend 197.8 million hours watching videos on the platform each day, Instagram users spend less than one-tenth of that — 17.6 million hours a day — watching Reels, according to the report.
"This story uses outdated and, in some cases, incorrect data to paint a false picture of our progress on Reels," Meta spokesperson Devi Narasimhan told Insider. "We still have work to do, but creators and businesses are seeing promising results and our monetization growth is faster than we expected as more people are watching, creating and connecting through Reels than ever before."
Part of the problem, according to the report, is that Reels struggles to bring in original content; nearly a third of all videos are created elsewhere then uploaded to Instagram. The recycled videos (which can often be identified by watermark) have become so burdensome the company has said it downranks these videos when they show up in users' feeds.
"We've been forthright that Reels that are visibly recycled from other apps won't be recommended as often," Narasimhan said. "Our community has told us they prefer to see Reels that are uniquely made for Instagram — this is what they find the most entertaining and inspiring."
The internal report comes shortly after one of Instagram's pushes for more video content crashed and burned.
In July, when the social media company said it'd be testing out a full-screen version of the app and that Facebook would be transitioning to an algorithm similar to TikTok's — which would have fed users more videos from strangers than friends — major arbiters of internet culture quickly clapped back.
Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner took to their Stories to tell Instagram to "stop trying to be TikTok," provoking other users and influencers to do the same.
Shortly thereafter, Instagram pulled the plug on the plans, with Instagram boss Adam Mosseri telling Casey Newton's Platformer they "need to take a big step back and regroup."