Facebook’s seemingly never-ending quest to make itself appealing to younger, teenage smartphone owners has now resulted in an app called LOL, a simple piece of software featuring a feed of memes and GIFs categorized by topics like “animals” and “pranks,” and Facebook is currently testing it with 100 high school users (with the consent of their parents). LOL’s design feels a lot like Snapchat’s Discover tab, and it will offer algorithmically curated bundles of videos users can scroll through using an interaction similar to toggling through Instagram Stories, with share and reaction buttons underneath. The point is, Facebook is making it all super familiar, employing user features similar to other uber popular social media sites that teens are currently flocking to, to try and get them to just give Facebook another try. Pretty please? With sugar on top?
Facebook has a long history of trying and failing to cater to teen audiences. Remember Poke and Slingshot? Rooms and Riff? No? Exactly. Those users initially flocked to Snapchat years ago and have never really returned to the Facebook fold. However, Facebook sees an opening, as Snapchat has largely ceded its role as the most mainstream and popular digital hangout space to Instagram. However, Instagram, while owned by Facebook, isn’t Facebook, which is still struggling to make its primary mobile app appealing to the demographics more desirable to advertisers. So they’re really hoping LOL finally hits the mark with the coveted teens and millennials.
Needless to say, Facebook is eager to tap into a market both deemed lucrative by advertisers and seen as the breeding ground for new and cutting-edge developments in internet culture. It’s not clear LOL will fare any better than any of Facebook’s previous attempts here, but it’s surely a sign that the company is not giving up without a fight. Ooh, maybe if they made a “Fight Club” app….
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