Big news: Instagram is launching a standalone video app that will allow creators to distribute long-form videos on the platform.
Video lengths on Instagram:
1) Old limit — 60s (15s for stories)
2) New limit — 60m
3) Ideal size — 10m
The target audience includes celebrities/social media stars such as:
1) Kim Kardashian West
2) Selena Gomez
3) Kevin Hart
4) King Bach
5) Ninja
Why are they doing this? YouTube is the preferred video platform for Instagram celebrities due to its monetization options.
Let’s look at a social media star such as Lele Pons for an example.
Social media following:
1) Instagram — 25M followers
2) YouTube — 10M subscribers
3) Facebook — 4M likes
She drives fans directly to her YouTube channel from Instagram/Facebook.
84% of video views on YouTube come from social media stars like Lele Pons.
Watch #1: A good explainer video from TVREV.
Watch #2: A walkthrough via TechCrunch.
Why is this a big deal? Two primary reasons.
Reason #1: Instagram’s user base is still growing rapidly.
User growth by year:
1) 2010–1M
2) 2011–10M (↑ 900%)
3) 2012–50M (↑ 400%)
4) 2013–150M (↑ 200%)
5) 2014–300M (↑ 100%)
6) 2015–400M (↑ 33%)
7) 2016–600M (↑ 50%)
8) 2017–800M (↑ 33%)
9) 2018–1B (↑ 25%)
Reason #2: Time spent on Instagram is about to catch Facebook.
Minutes per day:
1) Facebook — 58.5
2) Instagram — 53.2
More #1: Ten examples of brands already CRUSHING IT on IGTV with Vertical Video
More #2: YouTube to let creators monetize through channel memberships, merchandise, and premieres
More #3: Without Facebook, Instagram would be worth $100 billion, report says
