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Facebook puts Lasso, its “TikTok killer”, in the closet

Launched a year and a half ago, Lasso bows out. Facebook, which aimed to compete with TikTok with a certified copy home, announced Wednesday, July 1, the end of the app to its users within seven days. The closing will be official on July 10, 2020.

Nothing but a test now closed

« We make several bets in our family of applications to test and learn how people want to express themselves. One of those tests was Lasso, our short video app, and we decided to end it. We thank all those who shared their creativity and comments during this experience. We will try to integrate them into our other video experiments “A Facebook spokesperson told Techcrunch.

In February, Lasso was however available in Colombia, Mexico, the United States, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Ecuador, Uruguay and also in India in Hindi language.

Finished Lasso, but the ambition is still there

Lasso was seen as Facebook’s response to Tiktok, which has become the favorite social network for young people in China and the West. Since late 2018, Lasso has allowed users to film 15-second videos and layer popular songs – just like the Chinese app.

Some analyze this disappearance as a way to make room for new Instagram Reels, Facebook’s new workhorse to compete with the Chinese giant. Among them, Josh Constine on Twitter.

But, as the note TechCrunch, the reasons for this sudden end are not clear. One thing is certain, the Lasso adventure has been disrupted since its inception. A few days after the launch, Brady Voss, head of the app development program, had left Facebook.

80,000 daily active users in Mexico

As of June 1, 2020, Lasso had fewer than 80,000 daily active users on Android in Mexico – its record – according to the company App Annie cited by TechCrunch. IOS side, the numbers were so low that they weren’t even tracked.

Earlier this week, Facebook also announced the closure of the Hobbi app, which allowed users to document their personal projects. It was also an experimental project of the group.

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