In today’s battlefield of video platform, Darwin’s theory of ‘Survival of the Fittest’ comes into play impeccably. Many warriors fought incessantly with a weapon of apps against a common enemy who has survived this battle with top-notch skills since 2005-YouTube. Myriad of apps took birth and died fighting against YouTube and some of them were also being labeled as the next YouTube or the end of YouTube, but YouTube stands much stronger even in 2018.
A new warrior has just stepped into this social media battlefield, claiming it to be most superior amongst all other contenders. This warrior has been dressed up by Instagram with lots of unique features. It is called as IGTV.
Let’s get acquainted with the growth of Instagram
Instagram was a platform that stood robustly on the pillars of just filtering and sharing photos. At the time, when it took birth, neither mobile-networks nor cameras or the users were ready for long-form video. But it set itself on the journey of gradual growth and since it was acquired by Facebook in 2012, it has grown to more than five times the size of Snapchat. You can easily guess the next target- YOUTUBE.
Also Read: 5 Reasons Your Instagram Posts are Not Getting Comments and Likes
Instagram’s official announcement
At an event in San Francisco, Instagram made two major announcements. Instagram, after announcing a billion monthly active users, also launched IGTV- “A Video App that supports long form vertical videos for up to 10 minutes and 60 minutes depending on the number of followers an account has.”
“Video is a way we hang out with friends and we pass the time, but how we watch it is changing. Teens are now watching 40% less TV than they did five years ago, and on Instagram, people are watching 60% more video in just the last year,” says Systrom.
Hence, Instagram with a vision to appeal to a younger generation of consumers, who are consuming video on mobile devices at a much higher rate, came up with IGTV- ‘A reliable place to watch something great on the small screen.’
While there’s a stand-alone IGTV app, you’ll also be able to watch from within the Instagram app so the entire community of one billion can use it from the very start.
How IGTV acts as a TV?
- Just like turning ON the TV, IGTV starts playing as soon as you open up the app.
- You don’t have to search to start watching content from people you already follow on Instagram and others you might like based on your interests. The interface is pretty simple with three sections on it:
- For you – that streams content based on your activity on Instagram.
- Following – shows videos from those you follow.
- Popular – contains trending public videos from celebrities and other channels.
- Also like TV, IGTV has channels. But the unique point hidden in this is that the creators are the channels. When you follow a creator on Instagram, their IGTV channel will show up for you to watch. Anyone can be a creator — you can upload your own IGTV videos in the app or on the web to start your own channel.
The future of Instagram
Instagram’s big user base of 1 billion will definitely attract an enormous amount of advertisers. Moreover, Instagram is predicted to earn $5.5 billion in U.S. ad revenue in 2018 that will be 70% more than the last year.
Instagram has traveled a long successful journey and succeeded beyond its own dreams as a social-media platform standing on the pillars of photo and story-sharing. Now, with the recent announcement, Instagram is trying to be the ‘King of all the trades’. This step can, however, hit back hard by quelling its excellence in those other categories.
“The biggest risk is not taking any risk… In a world that changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks.” ~ Mark Zuckerburg