Instagram doubles down on short videos

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Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri says the platform will avoid the temptation to focus on long-form videos because they are not easily shareable.

Instagram is committed to bringing shorter, shareable videos to the table in the near future.

In a video about the platform he runs, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri said the social media platform is designed to connect with friends around common interests by sharing content such as short-form videos.

“It’s part of our core identity to connect people with their friends and we don’t want to compromise that by focusing on long-form videos,” Mosseri said.

“We try to prioritize short videos that do (that).”

Mosseri, who has run Instagram for nearly six years, explained that shorter videos are symbiotic with connecting with others with similar interests because users are more likely to share them, while longer videos are less likely to be shared.

“If you watch a 10- or 20-minute video, you see less content from your friends, you interact less with your friends, and you’re actually less likely to send that content or video to a friend,” Mosseri added.

“So we’re not going to go into that sector because it’s part of our core identity to connect people with their friends and we don’t want to compromise that by going into long-form video.”

That doesn’t mean users can’t post longer videos on the platform. Technically, you can upload videos up to an hour long, and Instagram has already dabbled in long-form videos with IGTV.

Instagram’s strategy contrasts with that of rival video-sharing platform YouTube, which has seen an increase in consumption of both long- and short-form videos.

At the recent IAB Video Summit, YouTube ANZ head Caroline Oates said the platform had seen an increase in two viewing trends.

“The first is short-form content… and we see that in the rise of short films, which have been viewed over 2 billion times globally. The other thing, which I think is contradictory, is the rise of long-form content. In particular, when we look at CTV, we see longer session lengths. Today, about 65% of CTV content consumed is longer than 21 minutes.”

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