Competition Between TikTok and Facebook Heats Up

TikTok, the popular video-sharing app, has set up an office in Mountain View, California, close to Facebook’s headquarters in Palo Alto. This move has brought the two companies closer together geographically, with TikTok now occupying the space where Facebook’s WhatsApp team was once located. Reports from CNBC indicate that TikTok has been successful in recruiting over two dozen former Facebook employees since 2018, offering salaries up to 20% higher than what they were receiving at Facebook. TikTok’s talent pool doesn’t just come from Facebook; they have also managed to attract employees from Apple, Snap, Google, and other tech giants.

While Facebook has not officially acknowledged TikTok as a direct competitor in their financial reports, they are certainly aware of the ongoing developments. Facebook introduced Lasso, a short video app similar to TikTok, in November, but it did not gain the same traction. Instead, Facebook-owned Instagram seems to be taking the lead in challenging TikTok’s dominance. Reports suggest that Instagram is working on a feature that would allow users to create short videos with music, mirroring TikTok’s offering. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, mentioned their strategy to compete with TikTok, saying, “So yeah. I mean, TikTok is doing well … we’re trying to first see if we can get it to work in countries where TikTok is not already big before we go and compete with TikTok in countries where they are big.”