Instagram took aim at Snapchat last year. Snapchat took a beating. Instagram is now taking aim at YouTube. Results awaited.

On Wednesday, Instagram held a food-and-influencer-filled conference in San Francisco to give the world a glimpse of its new app, IGTV (Instagram Television), which will also exist as a tab within the main app.

What is it?

IGTV is an app to watch long-form videos that can go as long as 10 minutes, which is a big upgrade from Instagram videos that are limited to one minute. There will be exceptions for creators with massive audiences. The “special” ones can post up to 60 minutes of video.

“Video is the way we hang out with friends, the way we pass the time, but the way we watch it is changing,” said Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s chief executive and co-founder, on stage. “Teens might be watching less TV, but they’re watching more creators online.”

Second, all the videos on IGTV will be prerecorded and not live but live videos might be a possibility in the future.

Third, and this is interesting, all videos will have to be shot vertically, which is how people typically record on smartphones. This can be a game changer because if we look at much of cinematic history, films have been in the horizontal or landscape mode. And most professional videographers scoff at the idea of vertical videos. “The tools we watch video on are old and out of date. Think about it — we still watch videos formatted for TV, on a vertical screen,” said Kevin.

The company hopes the platform will be used by popular creators, like former Vine star Lele Pons, who has more than 25 million Instagram followers. According to Wired, the app is launching with a group of pre-selected video stars, including publishers like National Geographic, which has more than 88 million followers on Instagram, and brands like Benefit Cosmetics. 

Will there be channels on IGTV?

Yes, but the channels will belong to the creators. When you follow a creator on Instagram, their IGTV channel will show up for you to watch. Do check out IGTV content from popular Instagram creators LaurDIY (she has posted her newest project) and King Bach (shared his latest comedy skit).

How important is it for Facebook?

Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion when the photo-sharing service had only 30 million users. Recent studies have found that the age group using Facebook is on the upward swing.

To give you some figures, according to eMarketer, in 2018, 2.2 million 12- to 17-year-olds and 4.5 million 18- to 24-year-olds will regularly use Facebook in the UK, 700,000 fewer than in 2017. Youngsters are flocking to Instagram and Snapchat. On Wednesday, Instagram said it now has a billion monthly users. By comparison, Google’s YouTube platform has said it has 1.9 billion users logging into the service every month, and Facebook has 2.2 billion monthly users.

How important is it for owner Mark Zuckerberg?

IGTV will give the world something new to talk about other the Cambridge Analytica fiasco that had Facebook at its heart. The stock market has also reacted kindly to the move. Zuckerberg became $1.7 billion richer on Wednesday after FB stock rose 2.3 per cent in regular trading on the news that Instagram is rolling out a new feature. According to Bloomberg, Mr Z is now worth $81.6 billion, gaining $8.8 billion this year as Facebook shook off a data-privacy crisis that caused its stock to tumble 18 per cent.

Where to find IGTV?

IGTV is already available on Android and iOS. It’s free. 

What are you loving about IGTV?

Tell t2@abp.in