Social networking service Instagram, which is owned by Facebook has over one billion monthly active users. On June 20, the CEO announced a long-form video platform, called IGTV. Users will be able to upload video content of up to one hour, a new feature that will serve as a direct competitor to YouTube.
Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom announced the launch of IGTV, an app for long-form videos, at its headquarters in San Francisco on June 20. Users will be able to upload video content of up to one hour in length within the Instagram app, as well as through the IGTV standalone app.
It's mobile first, it's simple and it's quality. That's IGTV. The app will be available in the coming days on Android and iOS, and in the meantime you can update your Instagram app to start watching IGTV today.
The videos shown on IGTV will all be vertical, as it was designed for smartphones. This means users will no longer have to rotate their phones when watching videos.
First thing you'll notice when you first enter IGTV is that everything is made for how you naturally hold your phone. Videos play fullscreen and there is no wasted space.
As more and more people are using the Internet to watch videos, Instagram decided to do away with its one-minute limit for videos. Regular users will now be able to upload videos of up to 10 minutes in length, while Instagram celebrities can upload videos of up to one hour in length. The online video advertising market is expected to reach US$27 billion in value by 2021. As such, IGTV will allow users to insert ads into their videos, and ad revenues will be shared between the company and the user. It hopes this measure will encourage Internet celebrities and performing artists to set up IGTV channels. This move is seen as taking aim at YouTube, which has a similar operating model, and shows Instagram is willing to take on YouTube to gain a greater share of the video marketplace. Instagram was launched in 2010, and acquired by Facebook in 2012 for US$1 billion. It has over one billion users around the world. However, Pew Research Center statistics show only 72 percent of Americans aged 13 to 17 use Instagram, which is lower than YouTube's 85 percent. Meanwhile, only 51 percent still use Facebook, a decrease of 20 percent compared to three years ago. Young people are moving away from Facebook, which has also found itself in mired in data leak scandals. The company is therefore hoping to use Instagram to reinvent itself with young people.