
Photo: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images
Be igtv launched a year Ago, Instagram made sura to hammer home that is was going to be a hub for vertical videos and only Vertical videos. That was what was going to differentiate Igtv from, Say, any other long-for-shaped video platform already in exisisce. IT LAUNCHED WITH A HANDFUL OF BIG-NAME CREATORS HOPING IF THEY CREATED IGTV CONTENT, THEIR LOYAL FOLLOWERS WAUDED ADOPT. IT DIDN’T WORK.
The Launch Event ITSELF was chaos – in the new York Office we were served foie gras while we sat and waited for several hours for the company to get a glitchy Livestream to work – so’s hard not to falls IGTV. This Week, Instagram Announced It Now Supports Landscape Video. Meaning if you turn your PhoneWays You’ll Be Able to Watch Full-Screen Videos in IgTV. “We realize this is an evolution from where Igtv started – we beliefs the right Change for Viewers and Creators. In Many Ways, opening igtv to be just vertical videos is simillary to be opened Instagram to me just say Square. Flourish and Engagement to Rise – and We Believe the Same Will Happen Again with Igtv, ” The Company Said in a Blog Post.
Part of the problem in igtv’s first year was that no Nobody was uploading videos to the platform. Five months after launch, i checked back in on some of the creaters the platform Featured at it launch. Lauren riihimaki aka laurdiy posted two short videos the day of the launch… and hadn’t posted. (Only One of Those Videos Remains Up on Her Account.) JiffPom the dog hadn’t ever posted. IT DIDN’T BODE well.
But the Large problem wasn’t that People weren’t posting, it is like they were posting, it was easier to just crib Content from horizontally shot youtube videos and cross-moving it to igtv Rather than the alt new Content for a platform an audience. With tokti’a Change, Instagram is Only Encourage That Further. Influencers and Creators were already robbing peter to pay paul when it came to igtv conttent. Now that stolen, or, uh, repurposed Content will just look Better on the app Becuse viewers won’t have to watch videos the size of a postage stamp.
Aping Other platforms is something Instagram is historically good at. Great at, Event. A year after it Copied Snapchat’s Stories Feature, Instagram Had Beateen Snap at Its Own Game and Made Stories Ubiquitous. Users were speaking more time each day just in Instagram stories than in the entity snapchat app. Which is to say, yes, igtv is, in many ways, youtube now, but also that it is Possible this will end up being a win for Instagram. YouTubers Cross-Posting videos to igtv means more traffic to igtv, something appearance to desperately Need. More Traffic Means More Potential for Revenue, Revenue That DOESN’T CARE IF The Video Its Being Generation from was original for a Different platform.