Will the removal of the like-count have consequences for the industry?

After seeing this recent study by HypeAuditor, which found that total like counts have fallen for influencers operating within the regions where the test is active. I think users in Brazil and across the world will see a decrease in likes and engagement (as seen in some other countries where this has rolled out).

 There are basically two sides, like anything with social media, the BUSINESS side and the CONSUMER side. But sticking with the business impacts: In general, removing the like-count could possibly help smaller businesses hide their lack of engagement on content – though obviously algorithms will still be using engagement to determine whether users should see certain content. Obviously, this takes away some of the power that larger more established accounts/companies have been able to use to demonstrate their dominance their given topics/areas.

So eventually, there will be a progression towards looking at other metrics like comments and saves. Comments hold far more weight now, which means the person paying you for content/promotion can run through your comments and see if they are quality or bots etc.

I think people will start doing more live-streaming (to show their community engagement), and begin taking more polls (and then posting as many answers as possible in their Insta Stories). Since many brands and people are spending money on campaigns to boost likes I expect new paid boost features will surface from Instagram. They aren’t going to want to lose out on money. They will 100% hook us on something else, like “boost your post for more comments” or “boost your livestream!”