Through the years Facebook has been trying to lure in teens with its features such as Watch, IGTV, and Lasso. Although these features could not amount up to much the company is yet again speculated to be working on a project that is intended to interest kids. The project is called LOL and is said to be the chief source for all the memes that are trending.
According to a report from TechCrunch, the social media company is testing a new service called LOL which will serve as a hub for videos and GIFs. This project is the latest from Facebook after its series of failed attempts to woo teenagers who have been losing interest in the social media giant. Facebook had launched IGTV, an expanded video service for Facebook-owned photo-sharing app Instagram. There was Facebook Watch that was supposed to bring curated shows and programmes to the feed, and lastly, there was Lasso which could be considered a counterpart of TikTok. All of these features were launched last year.
With the ‘LOL’ Facebook would be looking to recapture its depleting teen audience which the social media platform has been losing rapidly to services like Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube. Moreover, a number of privacy concerns and data scandals have resulted in users deleting their Facebook account. To alleviate this situation, Facebook has been exhausting their every possible option.
According to a recent report from App Annie, Whatsapp, which is also owned by Facebook, is the most popular app in India in the Social and Communication category. Whatsapp was followed by Instagram as the second most popular app while Facebook settled for the third spot in terms of popularity.
The Cambridge Analytica data leaks that happened last year have caused Facebook to receive a lot of criticism from all over the world and according to recent reports, the social media giant might face a record fine from FTC for the same.
Facebook’s LOL seems to offer a themed collection of memes, however, according to the report from TechCrunch, the content of the service is apparently outdated and have often already been shared on other online platforms. Although, the content might get better as the number of users increases.
Also read:
Social media companies to fight India’s new internet regulations
Facebook tightens ad rules for political advertising ahead of general elections