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This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. Here is a collection past columns.

Facebook will love the short video format called Reels whether you want it or not.

Bite-size and repetitive videos Started on Instagram in 2020 As an exact replica of TikTok, the most popular app then and now. If you haven’t noticed the reels yet, you will soon.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said this week it would show the Reels in more places in their app. When people open the Facebook app, the reels also get premium real estate above the fold. Maybe we’ll see reels of used cars on the list soon. Facebook’s version of Craigslist.

Getting the reels in our eye holes is a little sad, a little bright, and worth watching as a test of Facebook’s ability to consistently popularize itself. Leveraging success to get more success is how dominant companies win – and it has worked for Facebook before – but it’s also how dominant companies lose.

Facebook could be the most interesting tech story to watch in 2022. last days of an empire or to reinvent oneself and be more popular and richer.

We may not want to admit it, but Facebook’s fate and strategies affect us all. This company’s choices about which features to prioritize affect how billions of people interact, the way businesses reach their customers, and the look and feel of the rest of the internet.

Reels are an essential part of Facebook’s road trip strategy company’s biggest fears about losing its appeal to young people and shrivels in indifference. Facebook wants some of that TikTok coolness and has made its own version of this app for Instagram.

It’s not clear if Reels is a particularly effective imitator of TikTok, but it may not matter.

owned by Facebook said It increases the time that Reels captures and the time people use their app spend with videos more than almost anything else. The company has expanded Reels from Instagram to the Facebook app and now has more spots on those apps and in more countries. The company is also experimenting with financial incentives to force more professional internet entertainment to make Reels.

We cannot know exactly how popular the reels are or why. Is it because people like the Reels or is it just there? Google recently said that videos on its own TikTok version, YouTube Shorts, are viewed 15 billion times each day. The number is so big that I didn’t believe it at first, but I should have believed it. Google has billions of users and it’s a valuable asset to keep an eye on new things.

Maybe TikTok versions of Facebook, zoom in or side door They’re not great, but the company has plenty of ways to nudge the billions of people who use its apps to try it. The company can see what people like and dislike, tinker with, and keep making a new product until it becomes better—and inevitable.

That’s pretty much what Facebook did with Stories, a copycat for Snapchat’s most popular feature, about five years ago. Facebook experimented with video and photo chronicles of people’s days on Instagram and featured them on the company’s apps, and then they won.

The playbook for the Reels looks almost the same, and the Facebook executives essentially told investors: Hey, we’ve got the Stories captured and we’re going to do that with the Reels as well. Putting your strength behind new products not perfect for Facebook. Not even this company try copying TikTok first.

Following the leaders of other tech companies, while not important, does not make Facebook look creative. Silicon Valley’s history has been marked by companies that didn’t necessarily produce a product first or best, but made it the greatest.

But the recent rise of young companies like TikTok and ecommerce star Shopify It could be proof that creative new beginnings can leverage cumbersome tech superpowers.

That’s what makes Facebook so compelling to watch. A Big Tech superpower may be using all of its power to stay on top, or it may be fading ahead of us.

Tip of the Week

Automate your way to energy savings

Brian X ChenThe New York Times’ consumer technology columnist has helpful ways to cut your electric bill — and maybe even force yourself to stop mindlessly browsing your laptop.

for last columnI tested energy-saving technology to combat rising gas and electricity bills. I’ve come to the conclusion that devices such as the Nest thermostat are helpful, but reduce my home’s energy bill less than old-fashioned improvements such as proper insulation and sealing air leaks.

Still, anything you can do to avoid wasting energy is valuable. One way to make this simpler is to set a schedule to turn off electrical devices in the home so they consume less power.

Some believe that putting the computer to sleep saves more power than shutting it down, due to the amount of energy required to turn the computer back on. But that’s a myth: the Department of Energy recommends turning it off if you’re not going to use it for more than two hours.

Here’s how to do this with a Mac computer, a Windows PC, and a light switch.

• On a Mac, you can schedule the computer to shut down at a specific time each day. I’m trying to get off work by dinner, so I opened the computer’s System Preferences applet, found the “Energy Saver” option, then clicked “Battery” and “Program”. There, I checked the box to turn off my computer at 6pm every day.

• You can purchase an internet-connected lighting product, such as TP-Link’s Kasa smart light switch, to schedule the lights to turn off. TP-Link’s app It has settings that will enable the lights to turn on and off at certain times.

Before you go …

• New war weapons: As Russia prepares to attack Ukraine, cyber attacks took the websites of some Ukrainian government agencies and banks offline. Researchers also said He said they discovered malware in Ukraine that wiped data on hundreds of computers.

  Related: Russian companies can use Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin to circumvent international bans My colleagues Emily Flitter and David Yaffe-Bellany report on financial transactions aimed at punishing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Moreover, Cryptocurrency prices drop on Thursday. When the world is unstable, investors tend to sell assets considered high risk.

• “Anything offensive and potentially harmful that happens on the internet can feel much more powerful in virtual reality.” said Bloomberg News columnist Naomi Nix after having a disturbing encounter using Facebook’s Quest virtual reality headset.

• Football teams call nerds: My colleague Rory Smith, of a German football team silent hiring of a data scientist shows that the sport is embracing data analysis to evaluate the skills of players.

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