Instagram has had quite a successful run from its initial days as a popular iOS app back in the day which then was introduced to Android later. This latest move by the company of creating original content is surely baffling and you can only think of few companies like Netflix are doing that.
Instagram is launching an original video series named Series 5 which is about a security driver that was framed for being in a diamond heist. This move is baffling since we know the company launched 15 second video support so as to undercut Vine, which then was beaten by Twitter’s 30 second videos.
The implementation is rather interesting. The show will be 7 minutes long and since Instagram videos have a limit of 15 seconds, this will translate into 28 episodes spread out in a month. Suspense is key when it comes to showbiz and this is what will make people anticipate for the next video.
It is a rather interesting move by the company and a big question is the financial aspect. It was bought by Facebook for a cool $1 billion dollars although at the time, it was not generating revenue. This changed later on after it started leveraging on Facebook’s advertising platform so as to provide a framework for brands to advertise on the network. This has led to ads being shown on your timeline and it is integrated well in the experience.
Instagram might later on find a way to monetize it later on maybe through paid subscriptions like what YouTube Red is about. For now, we can only view it as a way to make the users more interested in the platform just like their curated videos named Spotlight Compilations.
Source: AV Club
