“Exploring the Reinvention of the Internet: TikTok and Meta’s Recent Actions Reflect a Rise in Commercialization”

TikTok is working towards launching a new app called TikTok Notes that will allow users to post images in an apparent bid to rival Instagram, a service best known for its static-photo sharing feature. Instagram, of course, has expanded into video and stories itself, taking pieces of other services and incorporating them into its own product. As is nearly every social service you can imagine. If it works for one social media service, expect the rest to follow in some manner at some point — probably sooner rather than later. Expanding a feature set can bolster engaged time, and therefore how much revenue a social media service can earn.

The ever-evolving world of the Internet continues to see its biggest players slowly merging into one big blob of uniformity. Even the most popular companies are not immune to this trend. TikTok, known for its focus on short-form, vertical video, has gained widespread popularity on other platforms. Now, in a bid to rival Instagram, it’s taking a page from its competitors’ books with the upcoming launch of a new app called TikTok Notes.

This new app will allow users to post images, a feature that has been a defining aspect of Instagram. However, Instagram itself has expanded into video and stories, incorporating elements from other services into its own product. This trend of borrowing and adding features is seen across Meta’s other services and nearly every social media platform. For example, the popular Stories format has been adopted by various services, including Line, Spotify, and LinkedIn.

The primary driving force behind this effort is the desire to become a super app. By offering a wide range of features, a service can keep its user base engaged for longer periods of time. This, in turn, can help increase revenue. However, there is a risk of bloat, where too many added features can dilute the user experience and turn the app into something akin to Facebook.

This trend of “sameification” is also prevalent in other industries, such as the recent move by LinkedIn to emulate the New York Times’ success in gaming. It seems that major platform companies in tech are constantly striving to be good at everything in order to continuously increase revenue. However, this often results in the app losing its uniqueness and becoming more like Facebook, in an effort to cater to the maximum number of people.

As time passes, it’s common to see your favorite app evolve into something almost unrecognizable. This is because sticking to what made it special and unique is not always a successful strategy for widespread usage. Instead, to become successful, a service often needs to become more like Facebook.