INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Instagram has never truly failed at anything, but judging by modest initial view counts, IGTV could get stuck with a reputation as an
abandoned theater if the company isn''t careful
It no flop, but the long-form video hub certainly isn''t an instant hit like Instagram Stories
Two months after that launched in 2016, Instagram was happy to trumpet how its Snapchat clone had hit 100 million users
Yet two months after IGTV launch, the Facebook subsidiary has been silent on its traction.
It a new format
We have to wait for people to adopt it and that takes time,& Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom told me
&Think of it this way: we just invested in a startup called IGTV, but it small, and it like Instagram was ‘early days.'
It indeed too
early for a scientific analysis, and Instagram feed has been around since 2010, so it obviously not a fair comparison, but we took a look at
the IGTV view counts of some of the feature launch partner creators.Across six of those creators, their recent feed videos are getting
roughly 6.8X as many views as their IGTV posts
If IGTV launch partners that benefited from early access and guidance aren''t doing so hot, it means there likely no free view count bonanza
in store from other creators or regular users.
They, and IGTV, will have to work for their audience
That already proving difficult for the standalone IGTV app
Though it peaked at the #25 overall US iPhone app and has seen 2.5 million downloads across iOS and Android according to Sensor Tower, it
since dropped to #1497 and seen a 94 percent decrease in weekly installs to just 70,000 last week.
Instagram will have to be in it for the
long haul if it wants to win at long-form video
Entering the market 13 years after YouTube with a vertical format no one quite sure what to do with, IGTV must play the tortoise
If it can avoid getting scrapped or buried, and offer the right incentives and flexibility to creators, IGTV could deliver the spontaneous
video viewing experience Instagram lacks
Otherwise, IGTV risks becoming the next Google Plus — a ghost town inside an otherwise thriving product ecosystem.
A glitzy,
glitchystart
Instagram gave IGTV a red carpet premiere June 20th in hopes of making it look like the new digital hotspot
The San Francisco launch event offered attendees several types of avocado toast, spa water and ‘Gram-worthy portrait backdrops reminiscent
of the Color Factory or Museum of Ice Cream
Instagram hadn''t held a flashy press event since the 2013 launch of video sharing, so it pulled out all the stops
Balloon sculptures lined the entrance to a massive warehouse packed with social media stars and ad execs shouting to each other over the din
of the DJ.
But things were rocky from the start
Leaks led TechCrunch to report on the IGTV name and details in the preceding weeks
Technical difficulties with Systrom presentation pushed back the start, but not the rollout of IGTV code
Tipster Jane Manchun Wong sent TechCrunch screenshots of the new app and features a half hour before it was announced, and Instagram own
Business Blog jumped the gun by posting details of the launch
The web already knew how IGTV would let people upload vertical videos up to an hour long and browse them through categories like &Popular&
and &For You& by the time Systrom took the stage.
IGTV launch event featured Instagram-themed donuts and elaborate portrait backdrops
Images via Vicki Donuts and Mai Lanpham
What I&m most proud of is that Instagram took a stand and tried a brand new thing that is frankly
Full-screen vertical video that mobile only
That doesn''t exist anywhere else,& Systrom tells me
Creators were already comfortable making short-form vertical Snapchat Stories by the time Instagram launched its own version
IGTV would have to start from scratch
Systrom sees the steep learning curve as a differentiator, though
One of the things I like most about the new format is that it actually fairly difficult to just take videos that exist online and simply
That basically forces everyone to create new stuff,& Systrom tells me
&It not to say that there isn''t other stuff on there but in general it incentivizes people to produce new things from scratch
And that really what we&re looking for
Even if the volume of that stuff at the beginning is smaller than what you might see on the popular page [of Instagram Explore].
Instagram
CEO Kevin Systrom unveils IGTV at the glitzy June 20th launch event
Instagram forced creators to adopt this proprietary format
But it forget to train Stories stars how to entertain us for five or 15 minutes, not 15 seconds, or convince landscape YouTube moguls to
purposefully shoot or crop their clips for the way we normally hold our phones.
IGTV Popular page features plenty of random viral pap,
foreign language content, and poor cropping
That should have been the real purpose of the launch party — demonstrating a variety of ways
to turn these format constraints or lack thereof into unique content
Vertical video frames people better than places, and the length allows sustained eye-to-lens contacts that can engender an emotional
But a shallow array of initial content and too much confidence that creators would figure it out on their own deprived IGTV of emergent
norms that other videographers could emulate to wet their feet.
Now IGTV feels haphazard, with trashy viral videos and miscropped ports
amongst its Popular section alongside a few creators trying to produce made-for-IGTV talk shows and cooking tutorials
It yet to have its breakout &Chewbacca Mom& or &Rubberbanded Watermelon& blockbuster like Facebook Live
Even an interview with mega celeb Kylie Jenner only had 11,000 views.
Instagram wants to put the focus on the author, not the individual
&Because we don''t have full text search and you can''t just search any random thing, it about the creators& Systrom explains
&I think that at its base level that it personality driven and creator driven means that you&re going to get really unique content that you
won''t find anywhere else and that the goal.
Yet being unique requires extra effort that creators might not invest if they&re unsure of the
payoff in either reach or revenue
Michael Sayman, formerly Facebook youngest employee who was hired at age 17 to build apps for teens and who now works for Google, summed it
up saying: Many times in my own career, I&ve tried to make something with a unique spin or a special twist because I felt that the only way
I could make my product stand out from the crowd, only to realize that it was those very twists and spins that made my products feel out of
place and confusing to users
Sometimes, the best product is one that doesn''t create any new twists, but rather perfects and builds on top of what has been proven to
already be extremely successful.
A fraction of feed views
The one big surprise of the launch event was where IGTV would exist
Instagram announced it&d live in a standalone IGTV app, but also as a feature in the main app accessible from an orange button atop the home
screen that would occasionally call out that new content was inside
It could have had its own carousel like Stories or been integrated into Explore until it was ready for primetime.
Instead, it was ignorable
IGTV didn''t get the benefit of the home screen spotlight like Instagram Stories
Blow past that one orange button and avoid downloading the separate app, and users could go right on tapping and scrolling through Instagram
without coming across IGTV longer videos.
View counts of the launch partners reflect that
We looked at six launch partner creators, comparing their last six feed and IGTV videos older than a week and less than six months old, or
fewer videos if that all they&d posted.
Only one of the six, BabyAriel, saw an obvious growth trend in her IGTV videos
Her candid IGTV monologues are performing the best of the six compared to feed
She earning an average of 243,000 views per IGTV video, about a third as many as she gets on her feed videos
&I&m really happy with my view counts because IGTV is just starting&BabyAriel tells me
She thinks the format will be good for behind-the-scenes clips that complement her longer YouTube videos and shorter Stories
&When I record anything, It vertical
When I turn my phone horizontal I think of an hour-long movie.
Lele Pons, a Latin American comedy and music star who one of the most
popular Instagram celebrities, gets about 5.7X more feed views than on her IGTV cooking show that averages 1.9 million hits
Instagram posted some IGTV highlights from the first month, but the most popular of now has4.3 million views — less than half of what Pons
gets on her average feed video.
Fitness guides from Katie Austin averaged just 3,600 views on IGTV while she gets 7.5X more in the feed
Lauren Godwin colorful comedy fared 5.2X better in the feed
Bryce Xavier saw the biggest differential, earning 15.9X more views for his dance and culture videos
And in the most direct comparison, K-Pop dancer Susie Shu sometimes posts cuts from the same performance to the two destinations, like one
that got 273,000 views in feed but just 27,000 on IGTV, with similar clips fairing an average of 7.8X better.
Again, this isn''t to say
It just isn''t roaring out of the gates
Systrom remains optimistic about inventing a new format
&The question is can we pull that off and the early signs are really good,& he tells me
&We&ve been pretty blown away by the reception and the usage upfront,& though he declined to share any specific statistics
Instagram promised to provide more insight into traction in the future.
YouTube star Casey Neistat is less bullish
He doesn''t think IGTV is working and that engagement has been weak
If IGTV views were surpassing those of YouTube, creators would flock to it, but so far view counts are uninspiring and not worth diverting
creative attention, Neistat says
&YouTube offers the best sit-back consumption, and Stories offers active consumption
Where does IGTV fit in I&m not sure& he tells me
Why create all of this unique content if it gets lower views, it not monetizable, and the viewers aren''t there
Susie Shu averages 7.8X
more video views in the Instagram feed than on IGTV
For now, the combination of an unfamiliar format, the absence of direction for how to
use it and the relatively buried placement has likely tempered IGTV traction
Two months in, Instagram Stories was proving itself an existential threat to Snapchat — which it in fact become
IGTV doesn''t pose the same danger to YouTube yet, and it will need a strategy to support a more slow-burn trajectory.
The chicken and the
IG problem
The first step to becoming a real YouTube challenger is to build up some tent-pole content that gives people a reason to open
Until there something that captures attention, any cross-promotion traffic Instagram sends it will be like pouring water into a bucket with
a giant hole in the bottom
Yet until there enough viewers, it tough to persuade creators to shoot for IGTV since it won''t do a ton to boost their fan base
Fortnite champion Ninja shares a photo of IGTV launch partners gathered backstage at the press event
Meanwhile, Instagram hasn''t
committed to a monetization or revenue-sharing strategy for IGTV
Systrom said at the launch that There no ads in IGTV today,& but noted it &obviously a very reasonable place [for ads] to end up.& Without
enough views, though, ads won''t earn enough for a revenue split to incentivize creators
Perhaps Instagram will heavily integrate its in-app shopping features and sponsored content partnerships, but even those rely on having more
Vine withered at Twitter in part from creators bailing due to its omission of native monetization options.
So how does IGTV solve the
chicken-and-egg problem It may need to swallow its pride and pay early adopters directly for content until it racks up enough views to offer
sustainable revenue sharing
Instagram has never publicly copped to paying for content before, unlike its parent Facebook, which offered stipends ranging into the
millions of dollars for publishers to shoot Live broadcasts and long-form Watch shows
Neither have led to a booming viewership, but perhaps that because Facebook has lost its edge with the teens who love video
Instagram could do better if it paid the right creators to weather IGTV initial slim pickings
Settling on ad strategy creators can count on earning money from in the future might also get them to hang tight
Those deals could mimic the 55 percent split of mid-roll ad breaks Facebook gives creators on some videos
But again, the views must come first.
Alternatively, or additionally, it could double down on the launch strategy of luring creators with
the potential to become the big fish in IGTV small-for-now pond
Backroom deals to trade being highlighted in its IGTV algorithm in exchange for high-quality content could win the hearts of these stars and
Instagram would be wise to pair these incentives with vertical long-form video content creation workshops
It could bring its community, product and analytics leaders together with partnered stars to suss out what works best in the format and help
them shoot it.
The cross-promo spigot
Once there something worth watching on IGTV, the company could open the cross-promo traffic spigot
At first, Instagram would send notifications about top content or IGTV posts from people you follow, and call them out with a little orange
text banner atop its main app
Now it seems to understand it will need to be more coercive.
Last month, TechCrunch tipster Jane Manchun Wong spotted Instagram showing
promos for individual IGTV shows in the middle of the feed, hoping to redirect eyeballs there
And today, TechCrunch researcher Matt Navarra found Instagram getting more aggressive by putting a bigger call out featuring a relevant IGTV
clip with preview image above your Stories tray on the home screen
It may need to boost the frequency of these cross-promotions and stick them in-between Stories and Explore sections as well to give IGTV the
These could expose users to creators they don''t follow already but might enjoy.
It still early but I do think there a lot of potential when
they figure out two things since the feature is so new,& says John Shahidi, who runs the Justin Bieber-backed Shots Studios, which produces
and distributes content for Lele Pons, Rudy Mancuso and other Insta celebs
IGTV is not in your face so Instagram users aren''t changing behavior to consume
Timeline and Instagram Stories are in your face so those two are the most used features
I want to see videos from people I don''t follow
Interesting stuff like cooking, product review, interesting content from brands but without following the accounts.& In the meantime, Shots
Studios is launching a vertical-only channel on YouTube that Shahidi believes is the first of its kind.
Instagram will have to balance its
strategic imperative to grow the long-form video hub and avoid spamming users until they hate the brand as a whole
Some think it already gone too far
I think it super intrusive right now,& says Tiffany Zhong, once known as the world youngest venture capitalist who now runs Generation Z
consulting firm Zebra Intelligence
&I personally find all the IGTV videos super boring and click out within seconds (and the only time I watch them are if I accidentally
tapped on the icon when I tried to go to my DMs instead).& Desperately funneling traffic to the feature before there enough great content to
power relevant recommendations for everyone could prematurely sour users on IGTV.
Systrom remains optimistic he can iterate his way to
&What I want to see over the next six to 12 months is a consistent drumbeat of new features that both consumers and creators are asking for,
and to look at the retention curve and say ‘are people continuing to watch Are people continuing to upload,'& says Systrom
&So far we are seeing that all of those are healthy
But again trying to judge a very new kind of audacious format that never really been done before in the first months is going to be really
hard.
Differentiator or deterrent
The biggest question remains whether IGTV will remain devout to the orthodoxy of vertical-only
Loosening up to accept landscape videos too might nullify a differentiator, but also pipe in a flood of content it could then
algorithmically curate to bootstrap IGTV library
Reducing the friction by allowing people to easily port content to or from elsewhere might make it feel like less of a gamble for creators
deciding where to put their production resources
Instagram itself expanded from square-only to portrait and landscape photos in the feed in 2015.
My advice would be to make the videos
We&ve all come to understand vertical as ‘short form& and horizontal as ‘long form,'& says Sayman
&It in the act of rotating your phone to landscape that you indicate to yourself and to your mobile device that you will not be context
switching for the next few minutes, but rather intend to focus on one piece of content for an extended period of time.& This would at least
give users more to watch, even if they ended up viewing landscape videos with their phones in portrait orientation.
This might be best as a
last-ditch effort if it can''t get enough content flowing in through other means
But at least Instagram should offer a cropping tool that lets users manually select what vertical slice of a landscape video they want to
show as they watch, rather than just grabbing the center or picking one area on the side for the whole clip
This could let creators repurpose landscape videos without things getting awkwardly half cut out of frame.
Former Facebook employee and
social investor Josh Elman, who now works at Robinhood, told me he confident the company will experiment as much as necessary
I think Facebook is relentless
They know that a ton of consumers watch video online
And most discover videos through influencers or their friends
Even though Watch and IGTV haven''t taken the world by storm yet, I bet Facebook won''t stop until they find the right mix.
There a goldmine
waiting if it does.Unlike on Facebook, there no Regram feature, you can''t post links, and outside of Explore you just see who you already
That made it great at delivering friendly video and clips from your favorite stars, but leaves a gaping hole where serendipitous viewing
The hours people spend on Facebook watching random videos and their accompanying commercials have lifted the company to over $13 billion in
Giving a younger audience a bottomless pit of full-screen video could produce the same behavior and profits on Instagram without polluting
the feed, which can remain the purest manifestation of visual feed culture
But that onlyif IGTV can get enough content uploaded.
Puffed up by the success of besting its foe Snapchat, Instagram assumed it could
take the long-form video world by storm
But the grand entrance at its debutante ball didn''t draw enough attention
Now it needs to take a different tack
Tone down the cross-promo for the moment
Concentrate on teaching creators how to find what works on the format and incentivizing them with cash and traffic
Develop some must-see IGTV and stoke a viral blockbuster
Provethe gravity of extended, personality-driven vertical video
Only then should it redirect traffic there from the feed, Stories, and Explore.
YouTube library wasn''t built overnight, and neither will
IGTV&s.Facebook deep pockets and the success of Instagram other features give it the runway necessary to let IGTV take off
With 1 billion monthly users, and 400 million daily Stories users gathered in just two years, there are plenty of eyeballs waiting to be
Systrom concludes, &Everything that is great starts small.IGTV destiny will depend on Instagram patience.
