Facebook to test Instagram Reels with Indian creators

Instagram launched Reels in the previous year as Facebook’s reply to TikTok

As part of a new test, Instagram will now give creators in India the opportunity to share short videos on Facebook.

According to Bloomberg, this trial will allow a small number of users in India to share Instagram Reels — brief clips using augmented reality (AR) effects — on their Facebook newsfeeds. Facebook will also rename its own short-form video section as “Reels on Facebook.”

This move is the latest example of Facebook following in the footsteps of its smaller rivals, including TikTok, while using the reach of its massive social network. India is the biggest part of that network.

Instagram launched Reels in the previous year as Facebook’s reply to TikTok, the hugely popular Chinese social network. Reels permits users to make 15-second videos with in-app editing tools, including a timer and countdown clock, while also providing them with access to a massive music library. A few months later, the service unveiled a number of new features, such as shopping for IGTV, along with a redesign which offered tabs to highlight its eCommerce section, Shops.

This comes at a time when social commerce is poised to have its breakout year, as PYMNTS reported last summer. A report from Mobile Marketer estimated the global market for social commerce at around $90 billion in 2020, although that number will likely surge to over $604 billion in the next six years, a CAGR of 31.4 percent.

TikTok had been on the verge of being sold to a group that included Walmart and Oracle until the Biden administration put the deal on hold. But as PYMNTS noted last year, many retailers believe that regardless of what happens with the TikTok sale, Facebook and Instagram will remain large enough to sustain social commerce.

As Bloomberg noted, this is happening as regulators such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are in the midst of an antitrust battle with Facebook in an effort to roll back the social media giant’s acquisitions of Instagram and the messaging platform WhatsApp.