Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner want Instagram to ‘stop trying to be TikTok’

Meta’s changes to Facebook and Instagram in hopes of competing with TikTok are not sitting well with Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner.

The half sisters, who have a combined following on Instagram of 686 million users, posted a message on the photo-sharing app which read: “Make Instagram Instagram Again. Stop trying to be TikTok. I just want to see cute photos of my friends. Sincerely, Everyone.”

Jenner, the model, social media influencer, and cosmetics entrepreneur, boasts 360 million followers on Instagram while Kardashian, the reality television star and businesswoman, has 326 million followers.

Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo is the only person with more Instagram followers (470 million) than Jenner.

Instagram has instituted changes to its platform in order to appeal to younger users who may be inclined to gravitate toward TikTok.

Jenner and Kardashian shared a post that demanded: "Make Instagram Instagram Again."
Jenner and Kardashian shared a post that demanded: “Make Instagram Instagram Again.”
Instagram/Kylie Jenner

The app will automatically have almost all video posts less than 15 minutes long be shared in the Reels format. That means there will be no difference between Reels and video posts, according to CreativeBloq.

Instagram will also allow people to use any public posts in their own Reels. Prior to the change, users were only able to remix Reels.

Jenner, the cosmetics entrepreneur and social media influencer, has 360 million followers on Instagram -- second only to soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo.
Jenner, the cosmetics entrepreneur and social media influencer, has 360 million followers on Instagram — second only to soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo.
Instagram/Kylie Jenner

Instagram users who don’t want their videos appearing in other people’s Reels will have to manually turn the function off in their privacy settings.

While Facebook and Instagram have historically connected people to content produced by their friends, the video-based TikTok relies on algorithmic signals and viral content to show viewers highly engaging posts, without having to rely on someone’s network of friends or connections.

Kardashian is the star of a long-running reality television show featuring her family.
Kardashian is the star of a long-running reality television show featuring her family.
Instagram/Kim Kardashian

A spokesperson for Instagram’s parent company, Meta Platforms Inc., directed The Post to a video presentation by Adam Mosseri, Instagram’s head.

“Now, I want to be clear: we’re going to continue to support photos — it’s a part of our heritage, you know,” Mosseri said.

“That said, I need to be honest — I do believe that more and more of Instagram is going to become video over time. We see this even if we change nothing.”

“If you look at what people like and consume and view on Instagram, that’s also shifting more and more to video over time, even when we stop changing anything,” he said.

“So we’re going to have to lean into that shift while continuing to support photos.”

Kardashian boasts 326 million followers on Instagram.
Kardashian boasts 326 million followers on Instagram.
Instagram/Kim Kardashian

The Kardashian-Jenner clan wields significant clout on social media. According to Insider, Snap’s stock fell more than 8% in 2018 after Jenner tweeted that she didn’t use Snapchat anymore because she didn’t like the app’s redesign.

At the time, Snap lost more than $1 billion in market value.

Meta is in the process of revamping its social media platforms in hopes of mimicking the success of TikTok, the ByteDance-owned video-sharing app that has a user base of 655.9 million people worldwide.

TikTok’s growth in recent years has been meteoric. Analysts expect its ad revenue to catch up with YouTube by 2024. Last year, it generated more ad revenue than Snapchat.

source: nypost.com