Facebook reportedly is back with yet another attempt to reach teens. This time with memes.
The social media company is testing a new service called LOL, which will serve as a hub for videos and GIFs, according to a report from TechCruch. It’s the latest in a string of largely failed attempts to recapture its depleting youth market. There was IGTV, an expanded video service for Facebook-owned Instagram. There was Facebook Watch, which was supposed to bring curated short shows and programs to the Facebook platform. There was wannabe TikTok competitor Lasso. These were all launched within the past year.
The repeated attempts for a teen-friendly Facebook service come as the social media behemoth finds itself falling out of favor with the younger audience—an audience they’ll need to sustain future growth. A number of scandals and privacy concerns have additionally pushed users to delete, deactivate, or stop using their profiles creating a greater need to attract new users.
“A very small number of US users” are reportedly included in testing, which is in “very early stages,” TechCrunch noted. Just 100 high school students (with the consent of their parents) are in the current testing stage, The Verge reported. LOL seems to offer themed collections of memes. However, the content is apparently stale, often already shared online days or weeks prior, according to TechCrunch’s first look at the service. Such issues could prevent LOL from even getting off the ground, although it’s unclear if content will improve as the number of users increases. Regardless of LOL’s possible success, Facebook still has a lot of work to do if it wants to (and it needs to) rebuild its clout with younger users.