Last Friday, Facebook sent out invitations to various media outlets requesting that they join the largest social media network in the world to hear about a new product they’re rolling out on June 20. The invite is shrouded in mystery and allure as Facebook naturally failed to indicate what exactly the new product in question is. Having already debuted its new hashtag feature without a launch party, some thought, myself included, that Facebook simply wanted to delve into the details of the feature, but a new report indicates Facebook’s Instagram might be getting video.
TechCrunch noted this morning that an inside source confirms Facebook will add video to Instagram and is set to make the announcement on the date indicated. Given the popularity of Vine, the 6-second video sharing platform, the move by Facebook wouldn’t be a complete shock and would likely be accepted with open arms by Instagram’s more than 100 million users.
Vine is so popular, in fact, that data compiled by Topsy Anayltics shows that social sharing on Vine has far surpassed photo sharing on Instagram. According to Topsy last week on June 7, “there were about 2.37 million links to vine.co shared on Twitter over a 24-hour period as of about 11:30 pm PT Friday night. That’s well ahead of the 2.14 million links to instagram.com that Topsy counted in the same 24 hours.”
The video feature to Instagram could shoot footage between five to ten seconds long, the source cites, which could prove to be Facebook’s answer to Vine. But even better for Facebook honcho Mark Zuckerberg is the added affordability to implement advertising to generate revenue. Investors can’t be thrilled with the fact that Facebook stock prices haven’t come close to its initial public offering price of $38 per share. Video platforms are a haven for ads as they’re much easier to execute ads because the audience is more likely to sit through a video ad than to click on a display one.
Of course, Facebook has yet to confirm the notion of video for Instagram and we probably won’t know for sure until the event is actually under way. Stay tuned to BostInno, though, for any leaked developments or rumors.
But in the meantime, let’s hear from you. What would you think about adding a video feature to Instagram? Would you use it over Vine and its own social sharing platform?
