Instagram goes for Youtube’s throat, to allow one-hour long videos
Photo-sharing app Instagram could soon allow its 800 million users to post videos that are up to an hour long as it seeks to dethrone YouTube.
According to a new report, the company is mulling an extended ‘vertical video’ feature and is in talks with content producers to create long-form clips specifically suited for Instagram.
The app currently only allows a video time limit of 60 seconds in Instagram feeds and 15 seconds in Stories but users can stream live video for up to an hour.
According to sources who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, Instagram is seeking to extend time limit to non-broadcast clips in a vertical format.
The photo-sharing app has until now not allowed users to post any videos longer than one minute.
Instagram already uses the vertical format for Stories and the sources say the firm has already engaged content creators to make video promoting the app’s new feature if the tentative plans are retained.
The move by Facebook, which owns Instagram, is seen as a bid by Mark Zuckerberg to further monetise the photo-sharing app’s sizable audience by allowing video advertisements in the extended videos.
Instagram boasts of 500 million who are said to use the service daily and the new feature will pit it against YouTube, which recent reports say is the most popular internet service among teenagers.
