Instagram gambles on longer mobile videos as battle heats up with YouTube and Snapchat
Facebook-owned app launches IGTV, which allows people to publish videos that last more than 60 seconds – initially, for most users, up to 10 minutes
Instagram has just revealed the new way it hopes will help it compete with the likes of YouTube and Snapchat.
The Facebook-owned social-networking app unveiled IGTV – a new app for publishing long-form videos on Instagram – on Wednesday.
It will allow people to produce and publish 4K vertical videos that are significantly longer than the previous limit of 60 seconds.
“We’ve come a really long way in just eight years, and it’s thanks to this incredible community ... that we've been able to launch IGTV,” Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom said at a launch event in San Francisco, which was beset by delays and technical issues.
The move brings Instagram into direct competition with YouTube, as well as Snapchat’s Discover section, as it attempts to persuade high-profile influencers – and ordinary users – to make the jump for their web-video needs.
Will people want to watch videos up to an hour long vertically? Instagram is betting that the answer is yes
It is also a gamble. The mobile-first, vertical-video format is popular when it comes to short clips such as Instagram Stories, but it is relatively untested when it comes to longer content.
Will people want to watch videos up to an hour long vertically? Instagram is betting that the answer is yes.