A creator recently asked me, “Are we going to make long-form videos on instagram?” The answer is no, and I wanted to explain why.
We do a lot of different things on instagram, but at its core, there are two jobs: one: connecting you with friends, and the other: helping you explore your interests, usually through short videos.
It turns out those two things are symbiotic. You see an awesome video that makes you laugh out loud of a comedian doing something and you send it to someone who you know is going to laugh as much as you do. Or in my case, I see a video of an amazing soccer goal or trick and I send it to someone who I know loves soccer as much as I do. So these things are all about connecting with friends over and above your interests.
It turns out that long-form video is less symbiotic with these other jobs. If you watch a 10- or 20-minute video, you see less content from your friends, you interact 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 be in that business because it's part of our core identity to connect people with their friends, and we don't want to undermine that by going into long-form video.
We understand that short-form videos don't always achieve that goal, but they can. We try to prioritize short-form videos that do. So let me know in the comments below what you think. I'm sure there will be many opinions on this. Peace.
