If you want to watch vlogs you go to YouTube. At least, that is still the case now and this is happening in large numbers. Well-known influencers get millions of views per vlog and earn a pretty penny from it. There has never really been a serious competitor to YouTube. On Facebook, it is possible to upload longer videos, but here the young people just walk away and on Instagram you could not post videos longer than 1 minute. Could, because Instagram has come up with a new feature: Instagram TV.
Rise of Instagram
Last week, Instagram passed the milestone of 1 billion monthly active users worldwide. Growth reached 5% in the first quarter of this year. And that makes Instagram the fastest growing social medium. Indeed, Snapchat grew by 2.13% to 191 million users in the first quarter of this year and Facebook by 3.14% to 2.2 billion users worldwide. And also in functionalities, the originally photo-sharing network is not sitting still, 5 years after the launch of video on Instagram, Instagram in fact launched a new feature: Instagram TV (IGTV), competing with Youtube.
What is IGTV?
Whereas videos on Instagram are normally not allowed to be longer than 60 seconds, that is different on IGTV. There you can upload and watch videos of up to 1 hour. Initially this is only available to large and existing accounts, but eventually anyone can upload 1-hour videos via the app or web. Instagram TV is "mobile first" and thus built for how mobile is used: vertically. Videos will therefore be full-screen and vertical. IGTV will be available via a button in the Instagram app and a dedicated app.
Otherwise, the usage is similar to traditional TV. IGTV starts playing as soon as you open the app. So you don't have to search for content to start watching, like on Youtube. You immediately see videos from people you follow and others based on your interests. Then, just like traditional TV, you can zap (swipe) along the channels. Just like on Youtube, each video creator on IGTV has their own channel.
Does Instagram TV stand a chance?
At first you might be tempted to say no. YouTube is so ingrained with viewers by now, and even the very young know their way to YouTube to watch their idols. But if any platform knows what it is like to successfully copy features from a competitor, it is Instagram. Instagram Stories, of course, are also a shameless copy of Snapchat, but are now more popular than the original. In addition, the influencers known on YouTube often already have an Instagram account with many followers as well. For example, one of the Netherlands' most famous influencers, Monica Geuzen, has 445,000 subscribers on YouTube and over 935,000 followers on Instagram. Therefore, it may certainly be interesting for her to take a good look at Instagram TV.
Earnings model for influencers?
One of the factors on which the success of IGTV will depend is how attractive it becomes for influencers to start using it. On YouTube, for example, they get money from the platform if their video is viewed frequently. That way, YouTube gives the creators something in return for attracting viewers to the platform. Facebook (and thus Instagram) is never too keen on that. However, Instagram's CEO Kevin Systrom does not rule out that they will eventually do this anyway. And they will need to if Instagram wants to entice vloggers and influencers to post longer content and vlogs they now share mostly on Youtube on Instagram. After all, for them the scale of Instagram offers opportunities, but of course it only becomes really interesting if they can make money from it like they already can on Youtube.
However, there are other ways to make money from Instagram. Right now, influencers are already making considerable money by promoting products on their channel. Just to give an example, Brazilian soccer player Neymar Jr. charges around half a million dollars for one sponsored post. Therefore, for a sponsored vlog on IGTV, you can also charge a nice amount, which can still make it interesting to post videos here.
Advertising
Currently, there are no other advertising opportunities within IGTV besides a sponsored video insertion, but this will undoubtedly change in the future. Think for example of mid-roll positions (kind of commercial break) that have already been rolled out within Facebook for longer videos as well.
Time will tell if Instagram TV will become a serious competitor to YouTube, but it is clear that Instagram is making great strides and they are not shying away from competition.
Written by Steven Ripken and Patricia van Zon, online planners at Stroom. Want to know more about advertising opportunities on social media? Then get in touch at contact@stroom.com