Instagram is no longer just a photo-sharing app. The app announced a shift to short videos by eliminating IGTV videos and the external IGTV app, and focusing more on Instagram Reels.
IGTV: In 2018, Instagram released IGTV, a video-sharing app to compete with YouTube. The app focused on longer videos, providing monetization to creators by placing ads in videos longer than one minute.
Instagram Reels: In 2020, Instagram launched Reels. Reels are short, multi-clip videos that can be made within the Instagram app or uploaded from the camera roll, resembling the format of TikTok.
- Instagram announced that in order to simplify the video viewing experience, the company will no longer support IGTV videos within the app, and will be discontinuing its external app that was created for these videos.
- The app will instead invest more in Reels, according to an announcement on Monday.
Incentives for creators: In order to compete in the world of video-sharing apps, Meta — the company owning Facebook and Instagram — unveiled a plan to invest $1 billion in creators by the end of 2022.
- Creators on Instagram have been offered rewards of up to $35,000 according to reporting by The Verge.
How will this change affect creators?: Creators that have previously used IGTV as a source of monetization will continue to receive a temporary payment from Instagram based on recent earnings, according to Instagram.
- With the new focus on reels, Instagram announced that it will be experimenting with new ad formats.
- Creators will be able to earn revenue from ads displayed on their reels, Instagram reported.