Instagram evolves with the launch of its new IGTV app

Recently, Instagram unveiled that its global community reached one billion. Since its launch in 2010, the community has flourished and grown. At an event recently held at San Francisco, they launched IGTV featuring Instagram creators who they believe will make IGTV great.

IGTV is a new app for watching long-form, vertical video from one’s favourite Instagram creators, for instance LaurDIY posting her newest project or King Bach sharing his latest comedy skit. While there’s a stand-alone IGTV app, one will also be able to watch from within the Instagram app so the entire community of one billion can use it from the very start.

 IGTV is different in a few ways. First, it’s built for how one uses the phone, so videos are full screen and vertical. Also, unlike on Instagram, videos aren’t limited to one minute. Instead, each video can be up to an hour long.

 They have made it simple, too. Just like turning on the TV, IGTV starts playing as soon as one opens the app. One need not search to start watching content from people that one already follows on Instagram and others might like based on one’s interest. One can swipe up to discover more — switch between “For You,” “Following,” “Popular” and “Continue Watching.” One can also like, Also like TV, IGTV has channels. But, in IGTV, the creators are the channels. When one follows a creator on Instagram, their IGTV channel will show up for the person to watch. Anyone can be a creator — one can upload their own IGTV videos in the app or on the web to start their own channel.

Kevin Systrom, Co-Founder & CEO, said, “IGTV will be rolling out globally over the next few weeks on Android and iOS. You can learn more by visiting the Instagram Help Center.”

Shrenik Gandhi, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, White Rivers Media

Shrenik Gandhi, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, White Rivers Media said, "IGTV looks promising to say the least. Having said that, it is not the first time that Facebook has got a product inspired from a successfully running feature of another social network(s). Vertical videos are currently being consumed across Snapchat, stories and on other platforms and it makes logical sense to have a collection pool of the same. Instagram just hit a billion users yesterday and it is a great value addition to the existing users. Its worthy to note, 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute! Almost 5 billion videos are watched on Youtube every single day, so it shall be an uphill task to break the glass ceiling and compete with Youtube for IGTV. But, within the next quarter, if IGTV becomes a part of consideration set as well for video consumption, it is a good start. A dominant video platform will definitely be the next big thing for the network and help it win the big active users battle!"

Nishant Singh Didawat, Business Head - Media Kinnect

Nishant Singh Didawat, Business Head - Media Kinnect, said, "IGTV is an astounding roll out. After bite-sized story videos and small form feed videos, IGTV completes Instagram's full repertoire of video formats. In this life stage, the platform will attract great attention from content creators and the general public which should lead to immediate adoption. Although comparisons with YouTube are inevitable, IGTV's proposition is a bit different given that this will be vertical-only viewing with a video size of less than one hour. If anyone, it's the long form content creators and influencers who will gain maximum from it. It should give a tremendous push to the influencer marketing industry at least in the discovery phase of the product. In the long run, IGTV will have to mitigate challenges like authenticity and credibility of content and channels, something that YouTube constantly strives to work upon."

Pooja Gururaj, Lead- Channel and social media at VML India

Pooja Gururaj, Lead- Channel and social media at VML India, said, “The launch of IGTV is not only an evolution for Instagram but also in the video viewing patterns of digital behaviour.

One of the strongest implications of IGTV for advertisers is a new facet to collaborations with content creators. Very clearly, IGTV has also been pitched (in the announcement) as not a place for all videos, but best videos. This hints at how seriously they are taking the ‘For You’ and ‘Popular’ sections of the app. Making it more suggestive and intuitive. And so, content creators as a channel to advertise/collaborate with seems to be the best bet here yet.An interesting twist to IGTV is the fact that by following a channel on IGTV you follow them on Instagram, and thankfully – vice versa. This only means, the community that an advertiser has built on Instagram is naturally the community you start with on IGTV as well. This definitely helps brands and content creators to get to it immediately. But, we will still need to see just how open the audience is to download yet another app and stay active on it!Actionable links in description, more video cover space, coveted search features and basic analytics definitely give hope for effective marketing efforts. But, advertisers will have to unlearn and learn new video consumption patterns, formats and even themes of this platform. While content creators seem to already be going big on the app, we will have to wait and see if the audience makes IGTV a highlight or let it disappear like a story”

Suraj Nagappa , VP, Isobar

Suraj Nagappa , VP, Isobar, said, “IGTV with Instagram back up will be native to smartphone, attract millennials and will be popular among celebrities and influencers which again serves as catpin for advertisers.  It’s a win win situation for both.”