ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, has just launched Whee, a new photo-oriented social network. It is strongly inspired by Instagram, with the difference that it focuses on restricted sharing: only your contacts can see your publications.
Faced with the insolent rise of TikTok, particularly among young people, Instagram tried to reproduce the winning formula of its rival, even if it meant openly copying it. However, the Chinese social network is also eyeing the Meta platform, which has a greater number of users. And for this, he does not hesitate to tread directly on his flowerbeds: photography.
If TikTok is generally used for publishing short videos, the social network also allows its users to share photos, in the form of carousels accompanied by background music, which appear directly in the main feed. The fact remains that the photo publications on the ByteDance platform have a very different background from those on the Meta social network, often taking the form of “stories”. Also, the Chinese giant does not intend to stop there and is discreetly launching a new application, called Whee.
Whee: a photography social network that feels like déjà vu
Available only on the Play Store in certain countries, of which France is not one, Whee presents itself as “a new social app created to allow you to stay in touch with your closest friends in life’s spontaneous moments.” A glance at the screenshots is enough to guess its inspirations. Whether it’s the position of comments, the interface, the section dedicated to private conversations, the Camera mode or the Like button, it’s hard not to see it as a copy of Instagram. But to stand out from its competitor, Whee relies on restricted sharing.
Indeed, where Instagram advocates public sharing, publications on Whee are visible only to its contacts, as are likes and comments. This is very surprising coming from ByteDance, often singled out for its greed regarding the personal data of TikTok users!
Whee: Yet another attempt by ByteDance to copy Instagram
This is not the first time that ByteDance has tried its hand in photography. Already in 2020, the company launched Lemon8, an application which aims to be a cross between Instagram – of which it uses the visual and codes – and Pinterest – for encouraging purchases –, while taking advantage of effective algorithms of his eldest (see our article). In short, a TikTok for photos! Initially reserved for Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines, it reached 1.5 million downloads in July 2022, for a total of 10.6 million downloads over the year. It was then deployed in the United Kingdom and the United States last year, where it did not experience the same growth as its sister, accounting for “only” 2.6 million downloads in Uncle Sam’s country.
Then, last April, ByteDance launched TikTok Notes, an application using exactly the same principle. On thee Play Storeit is described as “a lifestyle platform that offers informative photo text content about people’s lives, where you can see people sharing their travel tips, daily recipes…”. It has been deployed in the testing phase in Australia and Canada. It remains to be seen whether the social network will succeed in establishing itself…