Facebook to launch its TikTok-competitor ‘Lasso’ in India this year: Report

Facebook’s TikTok-like app Lasso will reportedly launch in India later this May. The company plans to overtake TikTok, the viral short-video app in India.

Facebook’s Lasso app launched in November, 2018. (Lasso/Google Play Store)

Facebook quietly launched its TikTok-like app 'Lasso' back in November, 2018. The company is reportedly planning to bring Lasso to India this year, Entracker reports. Lasso is currently available in the US and Mexico. Facebook aims to compete with TikTok which is widely popular in India.

According to the report, Facebook will launch Lasso in India by the first quarter of the next financial year which will most likely be May. Facebook's Singapore team has reportedly been working on the India launch for Lasso since October. This team has primarily been focusing on "mapping several aspects that triggered the growth of TikTok in India through third parties".

Facebook also plans to rope in influencers and celebrities for Lasso promotions. The company will also pay these people more than what TikTok offers. TikTok recently started pulling in celebrities on its platform with the most prominent one being Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone. TikTok has however never admitted it pays content creators contrary to media reports.

TikTok is popular globally and is one of the fastest growing apps. The app also crossed 1 billion downloads on Android and iOS last year making it very close to Facebook's family of apps. TikTok also receives the maximum growth in its userbase from India.

This isn't Facebook's first try to compete with TikTok but it would be the first direct competing app. Last year, Facebook rolled out Instagram Music in India which lets users add music tracks to their Instagram Stories. Facebook also brought its music feature and 'Lip Sync' to India. As the name suggests, Lip Sync on Facebook lets users lip sync to pre-loaded songs. This feature however works only for live videos.