I’m almost 100% sure that Meta has no clue why people use its apps.
That may seem logically flawed, given that it has three apps with over 3 billion users, and it’s the most successful social media company in existence. And granted, that takes some degree of audience nous, in order to build products that a significant percentage of the global population log into every day.
But outside of jumping on external trends, like stories, short-form video, etc., when was the last time that Meta actually came up with an original concept, then actually built that concept into something, that another platform hadn’t already inadvertently demonstrated the business case for first?
In this respect, Zuck and Co. have been exceedingly shrewd in their management, by ensuring that competing apps can’t overtake them, either by acquiring them, or replicating their features, and then bringing those elements to billions more users. That makes it extremely difficult to compete, because anyone developing any new social media feature will know that Meta could replicate it and amplify it at any time, and essentially make their app obsolete.
Building a new platform is difficult, and Meta has already won the scale race, which gives it a huge advantage.
But every now and then, Meta does still try to go it alone, and it launches a new product to address some need within Facebook or IG. And every time, it fails. In fact, I can’t think of one significant innovation from Meta direct in the last five years.
Maybe Notes on Instagram?
Yet, Meta is trying. Last week, for example, Meta announced a new feature that will scan the photos in your camera roll to detect possible posts and Stories for your Facebook feed?
Cool right? Um, no, that’s why nobody is going to use it, and Meta will eventually remove it as an option entirely.
What about its “OG Facebook” Friend feed, so you can get back to engaging with just your friends, that’s fun, isn’t it?
No, it isn’t. Nobody posts on Facebook anymore, because we’re all too wary of being judged and critiqued, which is why Reels are now the primary use case for the app.
Chatbots that impersonate celebrities and influencers?
The option to imagine yourself in fantastical scenes via Meta AI?
What about Facebook Avatars? They’re fun. Right?
Not one of these updates has resonated, and every time Meta comes out with one of these options, it feels like a misread of its audience data, which leads to an incorrect conclusion about what users really want from its apps.
The barrier to posting personal updates is not that they’re difficult to create, nor that people forget to post. People just don’t post personal updates anymore, because random comments from long-lost acquaintances have lost their appeal.
Chatting to celebrities and influencers is only cool because it shrinks the distance between you and that creator, which has always been one of the great equalizers in social media apps. Mimicking this, via AI, serves absolutely no purpose in this respect.
The barrier to creative expression is not the tools to do so, it’s mostly the actual time and space to think creatively, while only a small fraction of people ever come up with truly resonant creative ideas. That’s why it’s so hard to write a good book, or a good movie or even create a viral post, because hooking into that perfect creative wavelength is really difficult, and proves ultimately impossible for most.
AI tools will help, in providing more opportunity to explore such. But the vast majority of AI-generated content is going to be slop, and there’s no way that prompting users to “Imagine a space frog” is going to make this any better.
Again, Meta is very good at what it does, in solidifying its market position by fending off threats, through replication, dilution, and seizing on opportunities. Meta does this better than most, and as such, it may not even need original, creative ideas to maximize its opportunities, as its scale will be enough to “big boy” virtually any competitor.
But the threat of more creative approaches, more unique angles on social sharing, will persist. Meta may well be able to stamp them out, but it ain’t coming up with its own concepts, internally, to beat them to market.
Which is why Meta needs to partner with creators for its creative tools, and why it needs to open up access to its AR and VR experiences to outside developers, in order to build more resonant, engaging experiences. Meta knows this, which is why it’s already looking to work with creators on the next stage.
But its own prompts and tools, on Facebook and IG, continue to miss the mark.
So what should it build instead?
Why not provide AI guidance options that facilitate connection with like-minded people, building on Facebook’s original use case? Why not showcase Reels from local creators in a separate feed panel? Why not highlight people looking for gaming partners or groups, or provide music creation and remix tools in-stream, focusing on using AI to facilitate elements of broader creative expression, as opposed to having it make things for you?
Social media is participatory, and is built on connection and interaction, which is what’s been lost in recent times. Rather than looking at the data that says that “people are posting less,” then coming up with tools to simplify that process, why not give people a reason to post, with tools and prompts aligned with their own creative expression and identity?
Maybe this isn’t even a priority at all, given the massive amounts of money Meta continues to rake in by leaning into trends. But if it’s looking to encourage activity, outside of just watching videos, it’s regularly missing the mark.
