Facebook to Shut Down TikTok Copycat App Lasso

Facebook is shutting down Lasso, the social-media giant’s TikTok copycat app that allowed users to make short video clips with music and effects.

CNN’s Kerry Flynn noticed on Wednesday Lasso had started sending notifications to its users that the app would be going away. The notification said the app would be shutting down on July 10, before prompting users to make sure they save all their Lasso videos before its final day.

Apparently Facebook is shutting down its TikTok clone Lasso ???? pic.twitter.com/E0qBUTQczz

— Kerry Flynn ???? (@kerrymflynn) July 1, 2020

Despite launching in the U.S. and several other countries in 2018, Lasso has failed to gain traction with users. The app, which let users create 15-second clips, just like TikTok, was most popular in Mexico, where it had a peak of 80,000 daily users in early June, according to data provided by App Annie to TechCrunch.

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Lasso’s shutdown comes a week after Facebook-owned Instagram expanded its other TikTok clone, Reels, into several new markets. Reels also lets users edit punchy 15-second clips with music, similar to TikTok, and share them to Instagram.

The announcement comes as Facebook is grappling with dozens of major advertisers boycotting the service, at least for this month, as part of a campaign led by civil rights groups; the groups, including the NAACP and Anti-Defamation league, have called on Facebook to be more proactive in removing racist posts. You can read more about the ad boycott and its potential impact on Facebook here.

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