Facebook definitely closes Lasso to make Instagram Reels the next “rival” of TikTok

In 2018, Facebook launched Lasso, an application where users could post short videos designed to rival the popular TikTok. Now, the company led by Mark Zuckerberg has decided to put an end to its creation.

After the company's decision, Lasso users received a notice indicating that the application would be closed definitively on the 10th of July, with instructions on how to save all published videos.

In addition to being available in the United States, the application could be used in several countries in Latin America, such as Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile or Uruguay. Although Facebook has denied the rumors that said Lasso would arrive in India this year, the launch on the Indian market could even bring it some popularity, since the country government recently banned TikTok and 58 other Chinese applications for being considered as threats. national security.

For now, Facebook has not yet provided any clarification regarding the closure of the application, however it is speculated that the decision is motivated by the launch of Reels, or Scenes in the Portuguese version, on Instagram.

Like Lasso, Reels was also designed to be a rival to TikTok. The application made its debut in November 2019 in Brazil and allows you to make 15-second videos with music and various effects, to then be shared on the platform's Stories.

After several months of testing in Brazil, the application arrived at the end of June in France and Germany with new features, such as the possibility of sharing the videos created in a specific section of the user's profile. To the Tech Crunch, a spokesman for the company indicated that the expansion of Reels to other markets will allow a further evolution of the application, however, it did not reveal which are the next countries that the creation will reach.

Facebook is not the only one trying to create an application that can repeat the success of TikTok. YouTube, for example, will be able to launch Shorts this year, a platform for sharing short videos from the company's mobile application.

Apparently, Shorts make available the entire YouTube sound library, so that users do not have to install other applications for this purpose. In addition, the new bet could be useful for the community of creators of the platform, making room for them to increase their popularity and gain new subscribers.