Competition between social media apps seems to have stiffened lately, which has resulted in Facebook attempting to up its game. One step in the direction was to build apps that consumers might want to use in conjunction with Facebook, with the aim of enhancing the consumers’ experience.
To this end, Facebook set up an “NPE Team” to experiment with such new apps. The New Product Experimentation Team (NPE), which began operating in July, is aptly named because it is dedicated to developing, releasing & testing new apps on the market to see if they gain traction.
Canada is the most prevalent testing-ground, which experts suggest has been selected because its demographic closely matches that of the US, while its population is smaller, & therefore easier to manage.
The NPE Team has released 3 apps so far, the latest of which is Whale, a Meme creation tool, which is similar in many aspects to a host of other tools available on various app stores, such as Google Play & Apple’s App Store.
Essentially, this new tool allows users to create Memes, by adding text, stickers & emojis to photos, either the users own(from their Camera roll), or one selected from a library, particularly built for the purpose. Users can add their newly constructed Meme to their Facebook News Feed, or share them with family & friends via a few other methods built into the app. Users are also given freehand drawing tools, if they want to create an original ‘masterpiece’, & several layouts are included to keep users artistically engaged.
As mentioned there are a plethora of similar apps available on the market, but Facebook believes that because its tool is completely free to use, that its user numbers will rise & keep consumers connected to their fragile social media service. SnapChat & TikTok have similar inbuilt tools, so perhaps this is what Facebook’s Whale has been developed to counteract.
