Instagram chief, Adam Mosseri, says that the company seeks to improve the application functionality of the application, admitting that this is an area where Instagram could do more to compete. Remarks, made on a recent episode From the Podcast “Build Your Tribe”, come at a time when Gen Zz users often turn to social applications like Tiktok for answers, instead of using traditional search engines.
Instagram is also in this mixture, but he knows that his position could be stronger.
“We are starting to invest more in Instagram research because there is so much incredible content,” he said. “And frankly, what we call the search for content – as opposed to the search for an account, in search of a type of content – it is not very good on Instagram.”
The executive noted that part of the problem was that the team working on Instagram research was small, but Meta recently “strengthened” this team in order to deploy more improvements on this front during the months and years to come.
“It’s a long road, but I think it could also be a very good for people looking for things. You can imagine, whatever you use Instagram, it would be great to be able to find” more easily, “said Mosseri.” But also for creators … This should allow the content to resurface so as not to get all the value in these 24 or 48 hours. “
The way users of the Z generation and the youngest are looking for content is something that has been siluler for some time.
Google identified how the problem affected its own future as a research provider when, in 2022, a Google manager suggested that social applications like Tiktok and Instagram ate in its main sector, including research and cards.
Last fall, Tiktok began to compete more directly with Google’s advertising activity by allowing its advertisers to target its search results page.
Various market studies have also confirmed this change in the way young people use the Internet and web research at different degrees. In an American study, for example, Instagram has exceeded Google research and other rivals as Gen Z favorite search engine.
But it is still a tight race and not a race that Instagram necessarily won.
A Bernstein research study quoted by Fortune In April 2024, found that 45% of the ZERS generation is more likely to use social media for research and a 2024 Hercampus study cited in Emarketer found that 51% of the ZERS generation promotes Tiktok on Google research, mainly for its short video format.
Mosseri’s comments indicate that Meta knows the next border where Instagram must compete is as a search engine, not just a social network to follow friends.
Only a “very small percentage” of average users (non-creators) publish on the Instagram flow one day, he also said, adding that this part of Instagram becomes “much more a public domain”. The stories and DMs (direct messages), on the other hand, are the place where users interact with their friends.
Another area where Instagram aims to compete with Tiktok on research is the recommended research that appears at the top of the comments section.
On Tiktok, the suggested research is extracted from what people are talking about in the comments. This is something that Instagram also wants to improve.
“Sometimes, where the real interesting context is not … in the video that someone has downloaded, but in the context that surrounds them-which is almost always in the comments. And therefore what we are trying to make is to surface more easily, then you can go and know more,” he said.
He noted that the version of the Instagram application which examines more comments to improve research suggestions is “soon”.
