A creator recently asked me, “Are we going to do long-form videos on Instagram?” The answer is no, and I wanted to explain why.
We do a few different things on Instagram, but at the core of what we do are two missions. One is to connect you with your friends. Two is to help you explore your interests, usually through short videos.
It turns out that these two things are symbiotic. You see an incredible video that makes you laugh out loud, made by a comedian doing a routine, and you send it to someone who you know is going to laugh as hard as you do. Or, in my case, I see a clip of an incredible football goal or feat, and I send it to someone who I know loves football as much as I do. So these things are about connecting with friends over your interests.
It turns out that long-form video is less compatible with these other businesses. If you watch a 10-minute or 20-minute video, you’re seeing less content from your friends, you’re engaging with them less, and you’re actually less likely to send that content or that video to a friend. So we’re not going to go into that business 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.
We understand that short videos don’t always do this, but they can. We try to prioritize short videos that do. So let me know down below in the comments what you think. I’m sure there will be a lot of hot takes on this one. Peace.