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the rise and fall

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Hey! It was great to run into several of you in San Francisco during NBA All-Star Weekend. The game itself was forgettable as expected but the events around the weekend were fantastic. The same was true when I went to All-Star in Los Angeles in 2018.

NBA All-Star has become a legacy trade conference. People are less interested in the official programming and more interested in the surrounding activities. It’s great for you and me but the NBA has some work to do.

This week’s episode is about Meta. The company reaches nearly half the people in the world through one of its platforms, but many of its traditional media products have come and gone. Facebook Instant Articles, Facebook Watch, podcasting, music videos, and more. Even Instagram Live and the metaverse, while still around, are less prioritized than they once were.

We explored why that’s the case and have some strong reasons why. You can listen to me and MIDiA Research’s Tati Cirisano here or read below for a big takeaway about Instagram Live.

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The Rise and Fall of Instagram Live

Want to feel old? It’s been nearly five years since DJ D-Nice‘s first Instagram Live set reached over 100,000 concurrent viewers. That wasn’t a ton of people, but when those viewers were all in your bubble of social media, it felt like a moment. The same was true with Verzuz battles, Quarantine Radio, and whatever the hell Tekashi 6ix9ine was doing. In the early days of COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, as we tried to “flatten the curve during unprecedented times,” Instagram’s livestream product brought people together.

The real-time interactions with fans were great for musicians, influencers, and merchants alike. But Instagram Live, while still active, has become a relic in the company’s importance. It’s less likely to be part of the stack for an artist or entertainment to promote their product. It’s still easy to access, as Shannon Sharpe found out the hard way, but the product is buried deep in Instagram’s offering.

Sure, there’s a natural post-pandemic decline in usage. Much like Clubhouse, Instagram Live’s value prop became less appealing when the world opened back up. But the bigger reason is the growth of Instagram Reels.

In the summer of 2020, Instagram released Reels—its short-form video product and its answer to TikTok. Meta’s internal memos showed it was losing Gen Z to TikTok and had to make moves. As Reels grew, it pulled in more of Instagram’s engineers, which took resources away from Live.

And unlike Live, Reels is easy to monetize. On Reels, users can be served ads without much disruption to the user experience. Meanwhile, an ad interruption in a Live session feels more intrusive. For Meta, a company that monetizes its advertising revenue better than any other social media platform, that won’t fly for long.

Plus, Instagram Live had plenty of content moderation challenges with live-stream videos. The hate speech, violence, and misinformation were harder to contain. Even though Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has scaled back the company’s fact-checking efforts, users can’t add a “Community Note” to an Instagram Live stream.

Over the years, more users who built their audience on Instagram Live have begun to complain about the limited reach over time. But like most users who build their audiences on rented land, they have to be ready for the change in algorithms and strategy that can shift their whole vibe.

Reels is another example of what Meta does best. If it likes a competitor’s approach, it often acquires or copies the format. And while the approach is often framed as a criticism, it would be foolish not to make these moves! Meta prints money. Monetizes its social media platforms better than most, and has more users than anyone else. The company takes big swings with product releases as it should. Like an early-stage VC firm, it only needs a small percentage of its bets to take off and make up for the rest.

To be fair, most social media companies copy each other's features! TikTok, LinkedIn, X, Facebook, and Instagram all have overlapping features. But Meta gets more attention because it's the biggest player in the space. It’s like Spotify in music. Most streaming services have similar products and business models, but when was the last time you heard about Amazon Music “ruining the music industry?”

The Instagram Live story is just one product, but in our episode, we also talked about Facebook Watch, Instant Articles, podcasting, music videos, and others!

Listen here: Apple | Spotify | Overcast​

CHARTMETRIC STAT OF THE WEEK

Super Bowl Bump

Kendrick Lamar saw a massive 175% surge in streams following the Super Bowl halftime show—but the real game-changer is his upcoming tour with SZA. Upgrading from arenas to stadiums, Kendrick is set to perform for a much larger audience, proving that the true Super Bowl bump comes from live shows, not just streaming spikes.

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Dan Runcie
Founder of Trapital

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