Instagram (IG), a Facebook subsidiary, is apparently chasing after another business this time, as it recently released a new feature to the IG app.

Called IGTV, this feature will allow creators to post hour-long videos on the platform.

This move is speculated to be yet another move of the Facebook-owned platform to entice users to let go of YouTube and other similar platforms as their main source of long-form videos.

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The sky is the limit

When Facebook acquired Instagram in spring 2012, the photo-sharing app had roughly 50 million users and wasn’t making any money, according to Statista, a statistics web portal.

The fact that Mark Zuckerberg decided to carve-out $1 billion for the rising competitor was greeted with skepticism by some. Others considered it a smart move to step in before Instagram really took off. The latter were right as the chart below illustrates.

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(Courtesy of Statista)

The photo-sharing app has a billion monthly active users, and its advertising business hit the ground running along with Instagram Stories, which became Facebook’s first line of defense against Snapchat.

One can only imagine how much Instagram would be worth today, but considering that Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, is valued at more than $16 billion with a fraction of Instagram’s users, it seems fair to say that Instagram’s acquisition price was a billion well spent.

A revolution in video experience

On June 20th, Instagram announced a major milestone: Starting a new chapter of mobile video with IGTV.

IGTV is a new app and space within Instagram where people can watch long-form (up to an hour), vertical video from their favorite Instagram creators, allowing them to connect more meaningfully.

IGTV is different from any mobile video experience today.

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Mobile-first: IGTV is built for how you naturally use and hold your phone, so videos are full screen and vertical.

Simple to use: It starts playing as soon as you open the app, so you don’t have to search to get started.

Quality content: IGTV is built on the Instagram network, and creators are the channels; so you can watch people you already follow on Instagram and discover others.

IGTV is globally available, and some of the world’s top followed accounts have already started adding videos to their channels, including:

Huda Kattan (@hudabeauty)

Shereen Mitwalli (@shereenmitwalli)

Kris Fade (@krisfade)

Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian)

Chris Hemsworth (@chrishemsworth)

Beyonce (@beyonce)

David Beckham (@davidbeckham)

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