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TECHNOLOGY Thursday 6 augusT 2020
Facebook launches its new TikTok clone, Instagram Reels

By MAE ANDERSON, TALI school groups or check up
ARBEL and BARBARA ORTU- on parents and grandpar-
TAY ents, Instagram to follow
Associated Press their passions and TikTok for
Facebook's Instagram is of- entertainment.
ficially launching its answer "Instagram has put a lot
to the hit short video app of effort into developing
TikTok — Instagram Reels. Reels and making it attrac-
The new Instagram feature tive to TikTok users and the
will let users record and edit creators who work on the
15-second videos with au- app, but I'm not sure it can
dio, and will let users add replace TikTok," Williamson
visual effects. Users will be added. "Even if TikTok were
able to share Reels with to be banned in the U.S.
followers in Instagram in a (which I think is unlikely to
dedicated section called happen), users would find
Reels in Explore, or in the a way to keep using it. They
Story feature where posts are incredibly loyal and
disappear after 24 hours. protective of TikTok."q
The Reels option will be
available in the Instagram
app. The company has
been testing Reels in Bra-
zil since November and in
France, Germany and In-
dia since earlier this sum-
mer. Instagram Reels is displayed on a mobile phone on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020 in New York.
Facebook has a long tra- Associated Press
dition of cloning competi-
tive services. The Instagram Snapchat was difficult to Instagram. In response to ators for their material.
"Story" feature, which lets figure out for new users. published reports that Ins- TikTok, however, is under
people share photos and They were already com- tagram is paying TikTok in- fire, possibly opening an
videos that expire in 24 fortable with Instagram. But fluencers to join Reels, Ins- opportunity for Facebook.
hours, is similar to Snap- TikTok is very easy to use tagram said in a statement Microsoft is in talks to buy
chat. Facebook CEO Mark -- easier than Instagram that the company "have a part of TikTok in what would
Zuckerberg faced tough -- and part of its appeal is long history of reaching out be a forced sale, follow-
questioning about the that you're able to sit back to emerging creators and ing threats from President
company's habit of copy- and scroll endlessly with just working to break new stars Donald Trump to ban the
ing rivals before a congres- swipes, without the need to on Instagram." Chinese-owned video app,
sional hearing on July 29. follow anyone or post any- "As with previous products, which claims 100 million U.S.
Facebook earlier launched thing. we remain committed to users and hundreds of mil-
a TikTok knockoff called Even with the success of investing in both our cre- lions globally.
Lasso in 2018, but closed Stories, Snapchat remains ators and their overall ex- Experts think Facebook has
that down in July. It also popular with younger peo- perience, and in certain an opportunity to lure in
tried services similar to ple, though the Instagram cases, we may help cover young users with Reels, but
Snapchat called Slingshot feature has likely limited production costs for their its success is not guaran-
and Poke before Instagram its growth. Snapchat has creative ideas," the com- teed. "Social media users,
Stories caught on. But those more daily users than Twit- pany said. especially younger users,
were separate apps — it ter. TikTok, in turn, launched a tend to use social plat-
might have more success For Reels to succeed, Face- $200 million "creator fund" forms for different things,"
with a feature built into In- book will have to lure video in July that it says will grow said eMarketer analyst
stagram. creators away from Tik- to over $1 billion in the U.S. Debra Aho Williamson. This
In fact, copying Snapchat's Tok. This might be easier to in the next three years and means Snapchat to mes-
features was successful for do with Reels since many more than double that sage friends privately,
Instagram in part because creators are already on globally, to pay video cre- Facebook to keep up with
'Save Space Camp' drive prompted by

virus reaches $1.5M goal

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — A fundraising drive in the week it took to reach the have attended Space Camp since it
drive has reached its goal of bringing goal, and donations will continue to opened in 1982, and a dozen people
in $1.5 million to save Space Camp be accepted. Located in Huntsville, who went on to become astronauts
from closing because of the corona- Alabama, Space Camp is an interna- or cosmonauts participated.
virus pandemic, organizers said. tionally known educational program The Space and Rocket Center was
A corporate donation of $250,000 by run by the state-owned U.S. Space closed from mid-March through late
the technology company SAIC Inc. and Rocket Center. Leaders said the May because of the shutdown to slow
pushed the effort over the top, offi- pandemic has hurt revenues so badly the spread of COVID-19, and Space
cials said in a statement Tuesday. that donations were needed to con- Camp, which features students work-
Nearly 8,000 people and compa- tinue operating the museum and to ing in groups on simulated space mis-
nies from three dozen countries con- reopen Space Camp in the spring. sions, did not reopen until late June
tributed to the "Save Space Camp" Nearly 1 million youths and adults with a limited capacity.q