In 2010, Instragram burst onto the social media landscape as a photo-focused platform. There, people began to share images of their travels or even their food. Many people even decided to dedicate themselves to publishing and retouching photos; however, the focus of the app will soon shift to video and entertainment.
This was announced by Adam Mosseri, director of Instagram, who through a video on his social network account shared that after seeing the success of some of his competitors, such as YouTube and TikTok, they have decided to take a different course within the application .
“We are no longer an application to share photos,” he declared in the recording, where he also highlighted his plan to “adopt video in a broader way”, either from full-screen experiences, which can be more immersive and entertaining.
In this way, Mosseri wants Instagram to become an entertainment app in general, driven by videos primarily. The first changes will arrive in the next couple of months, but they will not be the only ones, since a transition of this nature, he specified, cannot be done overnight.
Although the person in charge of the app did not say what is going to change within the platform, the reasons were clear: “Let’s be honest, there is a very serious competition right now. TikTok is huge, YouTube is even bigger and there are also a lot of emerging apps.
An example of this is Kwai, whose director of international business, that the trend of short videos is not something that will disappear in the short term, but that they will remain in people’s taste thanks to their ability to hook people. people.
According to it, prepared by Hootsuite and We Are Social, YouTube is the second most used platform worldwide, only behind Facebook, and although Instagram is in the fifth position, TikTok is on its heels in terms of users.
Regarding the time that users spend within the platforms, the data also shows a greater interest in TikTok, as the report reveals that per month, people spend 13.3 hours on the Chinese application, while on Instagram, users spend 10.3 hours in the same period.
It is worth mentioning that a few hours after Mosseri’s announcement, TikTok announced that its videos will be three minutes long, that is, they triple the current limit length, in order to provide creators with greater flexibility and not have the need to divide your videos.
Those responsible for the social network did not mention if this will modify their algorithm in any way, but it should be remembered that as YouTube grew, their recommendations were oriented towards the retention of viewers and, therefore, creators began to make more videos. long.
In addition to the video, he pointed out that the modifications within the social network will also be in three other main areas: the creators, who will have greater possibilities to connect with different industries and monetize; their sales options within the app, as they know that the pandemic boosted e-commerce; and better tools for messaging within the platform.
Regarding the creators, he reported that Instagram is exploring a new function where content generators can upload exclusive stories for their subscribers, which is very similar to what Twitter has implemented through Super Follows.
