Instagram Manager Adam Mosseri on Reels Ads, Ecommerce, 2020 Election

Instagram is redesigning the app, placing tabs for Shop and Reels at the bottom of the main navigation bar, and moving the create (+) and notifications (heart) buttons to the top right.

The changes will start rolling out on Thursday and are designed to provide more openings for Instagram to display ads and encourage users to purchase items they see on Instagram, which in turn enables revenue growth for its parent company Facebook.

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri told CNBC that the company will put ads in its TikTok competitor, Reels, and make it easier for users to find products to drive the company’s growing e-commerce activity. Instagram takes a share of every transaction for a purchase made through the app. Mosseri said the changes are a necessary evolution of the app to keep up with the competition and serve its users and creators, especially in light of the pandemic changing consumer behavior.

“This has accelerated existing trends and accelerated the shift from offline to online shopping; it has increased the demand for entertainment video, ”he said.

For Reels, Instagram plans to leverage its new competitor TikTok and include a new space for advertisers.

“I think we can take advantage of the story ad format because it’s the same immersive experience. So that will be helpful, as you don’t need to make advertisers create a bunch of news. creations. [ads]”Mosseri said.

He said Instagram has yet to build an ad business in Reels, as the company is still working to make sure the format is appealing to consumers and creators.

Mosseri also acknowledged his rival’s success, saying “TikTok deserves credit for pioneering space.”

As for the fact that many TikTok creators simply repost their videos on Instagram, including the TikTok logo, Mosseri said he gets excited every time he sees a creator. Stop Doing this.

“I think competition is fundamentally a good thing and it’s a strong motivation for us,” said Mosseri. “I think right now we’re in the catching-up phase, trying to build some of the fundamentals and the fundamental creative tools… establishing that Instagram is a place for fun short-form video. But over time we’re going to have to differentiate and innovate, and that will take time, and for now, we’re just going to catch up. “

As for the decision to showcase shopping on Instagram, Mosseri said there is already “a ton of commerce or business activity on Instagram,” and that should accelerate the trend of people using the platform to find products.

“We should see a general increase in buying activity,” Mosseri said. “I think the important thing to understand is that the purchases will make sense to our business in a number of ways.”

Mosseri said purchase income can come from Instagram by taking a share of each transaction and opening up space for advertisers to buy ads that entice people to buy a product directly through Instagram. Increasing purchases on the platform can make the ads more relevant. This eliminates the friction between seeing an ad and being able to buy something.

Mosseri also defended Facebook’s work during the 2020 election season. The company has been criticized, including by members of Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, that it has not done enough to combat the spread of disinformation and conspiracy theorists.

“I’m sure we made decisions that people disagree with on both sides of the aisle. I think that’s okay but at a high level we tried to play on offense and in defense, ”Mosseri said. “On the offensive side, we tried to always focus on voter turnout.”

Mosseri cited the fact that on Instagram and Messenger, the company has helped more than 4 million people register to vote.

“And on the defensive side, we are focusing on a lot of things with the top three: preventing any foreign interference, which is obviously an issue that we saw in 2016 that we weren’t sufficiently prepared for,” Mosseri said. “We’ve tried a lot to tackle misinformation – you’ve seen us work with third-party fact checkers, add tags and develop content and passwords and I think we’ve been tested a lot last week. And then voter removal – you’ve seen us do a lot to remove any content that actually removes the vote, and we’re generally hesitant to remove content unless it has real security implications, but the one of the only exceptions to this is the suppression of voters. “

Mosseri also said he was monitoring the possibility that a Biden administration could push for an overhaul of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which would make Facebook and Instagram accountable for the content of their platforms.

“We have to be very careful when we look at 230 about the incentives we create if you take out section 230. This causes platforms to take a much more aggressive stance and all kinds of speech issues which can lead to some censorship, ”he said.

Echoing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Mosseri said there was still an opportunity to make changes to Section 230.

“We’re not against taking a look at 230,” he said. “We are not opposed to broader regulation. We would actually like, on more of these contentious issues, to have very clear guidance from regulators on what is and what is not allowed. to make some of these types of content decisions. “