Facebook is shutting down Lasso, its TikTok clone

Facebook is shutting down Lasso, the TikTok clone it had launched in 2018. Lasso users were informed via a message that July 10 will be the last day and they could save their videos if they wanted to.

Lasso was Facebook taking on TikTok with users being allowed to upload 15-second videos and overlay popular songs. Lasso had an algorithmic feed that recommended videos and you could also tap and browse through hashtags and check out themed collection.

Launched in late 2018, Lasso was available in Colombia, US, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Uruguay and Ecuador.

Lass got support for Hindi earlier this year leading to speculations that Facebook was going to launch the service in India too. Given that Facebook has one of the biggest user-bases in India, it would have made sense. However, that is clearly not the plan.

Facebook still has Instagram Reels alive and kicking, so with Lasso gone, it is possible that the social media giant might be counting on Instagram Reels to take on TikTok.

Instagram Reels has not seen a global rollout yet, but the features allows users to upload 15-second videos, just like Lasso. Instagram Reels has only been rolled out in Brazil so far where it is called Cenas. However, Reels will be rolled out more widely soon.

It’s not clear as to why exactly Facebook has chosen to pull Lasso off now and why it was never rolled out to more markets, but Lasso’s run seemed to be jinxed from the beginning. The person leading the development for Lasso, Brady Voss, left Facebook just days after Lasso was launched.