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IGTV Instagram: Long-videos introduced to take on YouTube

Instagram has announced to increase the limit of its videos from 1 minute to 10 minutes for users to attract young users from YouTube.

Instagram has announced its expansion on Wednesday, which allows users to watch long videos on Instagram, however, accounts with large audiences can go up to an hour long videos. The video would be available through Instagram or new app dubbed “IGTV”.

This could also be helpful for Facebook, Instagram’s parent company to push more advertising on its platforms.

This is the latest attempt by the social giant in order to grab the young audience from YouTube by allowing them to share and view content on the platform, Instagram is copying Google’s YouTube, Facebook has already copied features from Snapchat another notorious platform for young adults and teens.

Initially, the photo-sharing platform is now spreading its wings in the wake of increasing demand for sharing and viewing video content.

The decision comes after Facebook is losing its grip on teens and young adults, the data protection issues are also playing a significant role in damaging the reputation of the social giant.

Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom, told AP he is hopeful that IGTV will become the hub of creativity preserving the interests of young adults and teens.

However, YouTube has become the world’s most popular video platform, Google bought it 12 years ago for $1.76 billion now worth more than $70 billion according to investors and has over 1.8 billion users across the world.

However, Instagram was bought by Facebook six years ago for $1 billion now has the valuation of $35 billion; the platform has 1 billion users across the globe.

Since there is no competition as far as the size is concerned but by looking at the performance Instagram has outperformed YouTube, Instagram has added 800 million new users in just nine months.

Instagram has the potential to give tough time to YouTube in this way, 72% of US kids from 13 to 17 years old use Instagram after YouTube which is 85% according to PEW research. Whereas; only 51% of people in that age group use Facebook. According to research data, Instagram is well positioned to grab more from the coming generations that are 8 to 10 now. Instagram is actually investing on coming generations which seems to be the best bet.

This trend seems to be one of the reasons Facebook is trying its bets by opening Instagram for long videos similar to YouTube, said the analyst Paul Verna from eMarketer.

Another edge for Facebook to go into this form is the advertising, the longer videos attract more advertisers and the video advertising is the most popular format with higher revenues. Instagram does not allow video ads currently, but according to Systrom, it would eventually allow video ads on the platform. Instagram also intends to share revenue with video content creators just like YouTube.

Systrom said in a statement, “We just want to make sure that video creators make a living because this is the only way it works better in the long run.”

Video ads will provide a cushion to the company which will eventually cover the costs of expansion as well as makes some profit, according to eMarketer, the total spending on online video as in the US is expected to grow from $18 billion this year to $27 billion in 2021.

IGTV will incorporate vertical video format designed to fill the entire screen of the smartphones and emerging trend and the way young people watch the video. On comparison, YouTube videos open only in a portion of screens unless you tilt the phone to expand the display.

Snapchat incorporated vertical videos before Instagram, it is another example of Facebook copying rivals. But Systrom looks at it differently, “Vertical video is just a feature and we want this feature to come to our platform as quickly as possible that is why we are building IGTV.”

Instagram has also introduced a shopping feature recently, the feature allows users to shop through stories, last month the company has introduced in-app payments feature letting users pay for their purchase within the app.

Not only this, the social platform has also introduced video chat feature last month, the company has opened the app to compete its rivals at all fronts targeting YouTube, Skype, Snapchat and other social and communication platforms.

Earlier this month Facebook introduced a feature to stream live video games to keep it alive for some other purposes as well.