Romy Winter

On Wednesday, 20th June Instagram, after announcing that they’ve reached 1 billion users, launched their newest feature: IGTV. It allows users to upload and watch videos that are up to 60 minutes long. Unlike usual video platforms, IGTV is made for vertical fullscreen videos adapted to mobile devices – that way there’s no wasted space and people don’t need to turn their phone into a “unnatural” horizontal position in order to be able to watch videos. If users want to upload videos, they need the “IGTV”-app but the videos are available for everyone in the normal instagram app which makes this platform even more multifunctional. Pictures, stories, direct messages, live streams and now videos – what is gonna come next?

After Kevin Systrom, the CEO and Co-founder of Instagram made this announcement on wednesday, there were many people talking about Instagram trying to replace youtube. But is  that really going to happen, can IGTV replace the most successful video platform? Here’s my point of view.

I do understand when people think “why do we need IGTV, when we have youtube?” and to be honest that was my first thought indeed. But we need to realise that the only thing those two platforms have in common is that there are videos on there. I don’t see this as a battle between the two because I think we will use both, but for different reasons.

Youtube will stay the number one platform when we are looking for particular videos like tutorials, music videos or documentaries while IGTV is something we go back to when we have a little extra time and we just want to be inspired and entertained, just the way we do when we randomly scroll through our newsfeed. This is based among others on the fact that IGTV is only available on smartphones, but when we really want to focus on a long video we prefer a larger screen, at least that’s how it is for me.

So since the intention that we have when we go on each platform is different, the content we can find there will be different as well. On IGTV the videos will be shorter and the focus will be on image and music and less on talking because those videos are consumed in a more passive way. I mean, that’s what I would want to see on IGTV. In my opinion, youtube isn’t menaced by instagram’s new feature.

Those are my first thoughts on IGTV. I’m excited to see where this is going to go.