During the week it happened that TikTok launched its new application “TikTok Now” which is a carbon copy of BeReal, the application that has gained fame in recent months for presenting itself as an option without poses to publish photos. BeReal sends you an alert at any time of the day, at any time and you have up to 2 minutes to post a photo with the front and rear cameras of what you are doing at that moment. This act becomes completely spontaneous, far from the poses that exist on Instagram.
BeReal has started to grow. Since its launch in 2020, it has grown by 315%. And it has been the most downloaded app in September 2022 in the United States. Not bad for a social network born in France during the pandemic.
Now, the very fact that the new king of the world in social networks, TikTok, has copied one fundamental characteristic of another, as in the case of BeReal, reminds us of the epic battles -plagiarism- between the giants of technology.
One of the most overlooked to date was the addition of Instagram Stories that it stole from Snapchat. With this calculated move, the photo-sharing social network slowed the growth of Snapchat. In fact, Snap currently only survives in European countries. Meanwhile, in America, he is hardly remembered anymore. Copy or die.
Google copied Facebook, mainly in terms of the advertising panel, a few years ago, mainly to make its panel more manageable, which we users appreciate. Previously, I always tell it, it was very complex to advertise on Google. Now it is much more manageable.
Perhaps one of the most brazen thefts in recent years, in addition to stories, was the possibility of audio chats, as proposed by ClubHouse. Now you don’t need to go to the app, just go to Twitter to open your voice chat room.
Periscope is responsible for the “Lives”, for example, and currently nobody remembers that a few years ago, you had to open that app to make a live stream within your social networks.
Tik Tok has tried to copy its innovative communication format in short videos, first with Lasso and later incorporating it to Instagram through reels. YouTube also copied her through her “Shorts”. Right now, TikTok, copy BeReal.
The trend, obviously, is not to allow other networks to take off and establish themselves, as is the case with Snapchat, Periscope or ClubHouse. Some fall into oblivion almost immediately, such is the case of Snapchat.
In my opinion, I don’t know how much we users appreciate it or not. But on some occasions it seems appropriate to simplify functions in favor of having 10 apps. Perhaps we can have everything in just 3; however, it also leaves me thinking that trends are capricious, as well as users. What is “fashionable” today may be totally forgotten tomorrow.
A few years ago, everyone used MySpace and it fell in just a few months due to the popularity of Facebook. The same thing happened to Hi5 -at least in Latam-. This reminds me of the maxim in art and business: It doesn’t matter who does it first, but who does it best. Perhaps, at the level of social networks, it does not matter who does it first, but who is more popular.
Plagiarize or die. The great success of the big technology companies.
Do you remember any other copies that I did not mention?
We read next week.