Facebook has announced that it’ll be shutting down the Lasso app, which was launched in November 2018, aimed at creating a space for itself in TikTok’s user market.
Another one of Facebook’s new launches bites the dust as the news comes in the same week that Hobbi — Facebook’s Pinterest clone — was shut down. The major difference between the two remains that while Hobbi was being developed under the NPE (New Product Experimentation) team banner, Lasso was released under the developer name of Facebook Inc.
Lasso allowed users to create 15-second long videos alongside popular back scores — similar to TikTok — and also had feeds and search through hashtags.
While there had been rumours that Lasso might be launched in India, it was unclear if that was going to happen anytime soon. However, after India banned 59 Chinese apps citing security concerns, one of which is TikTok — Lasso’s targeted competitor — it remains unclear why Facebook would take such a step given they had a huge opening into one of the world’s largest markets, especially for the social media giant.
The unexpected exit of TikTok, which is a huge success in India, could’ve been a point of entry for Facebook’s Lasso app, which they seem to have missed.
Earlier this week on Wednesday, Facebook announced a couple of new features for Whatsapp, including dark mode for Whatsapp web, a new way to add contacts via QR codes, tweak in group video calling feature, availability of the Status feature for users on KaiOS and new animated stickers.
Last month, Facebook Gaming got a boost after Microsoft’s announcement that its video-game focused live streaming platform, Mixer, which was launched in January 2016 and competed with the likes of Twitch, will shut down on July 22 and all its assets — including streamers — will move to Facebook Gaming.
Facebook has rolled out a new feature globally, which will notify users when an article they share is older than 90 days.
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