Last week, Instagram unveiled a new app: IGTV
IGTV is a stand-alone app to watch longer, vertical videos from Instagram creators. All videos on IGTV are full screen and vertical.
IGTV is available on both Android and iOS. If you have the Instagram app, you can still watch videos via the new IGTV icon in the top corner.
Features of IGTV
When you’re in the IGTV app, the main screen auto-plays some videos from the accounts you already follow on Instagram. The app shows different tabs like For You, Following, Popular, Continue Watching etc.
The Popular tab shows videos that are most-watched across Instagram. If you skipped videos in between, you can continue from where you left off using Continue Watching tab.
With IGTV, users can watch longer videos. Length of videos on IGTV can be up to an hour long.
YouTube Vs IGTV
With the announcement of IGTV, Instagram is now seemingly in competition with YouTube. YouTube is the go-to platform for people to upload their videos. One thing that YouTube has over IGTV is monetization where users can earn money when they get certain amount of views.
So will Ghanaian content creators all migrate to IGTV? Not so fast.
Data, Data, Data
One of the things that are easily holding back content creators in Ghana is data. Let’s be frank: Data isn’t cheap. Prices have been competitive but they are still on the high side for some people.
Most people are still on Instagram but whether they will navigate to IGTV on the go is another question.
Many Ghana content creators are more likely to stick with YouTube but use IGTV for more on the go videos.
Am I Getting Paid For This?
As stated earlier, IGTV currently does not have monetization plans. It’s more than likely that content creators would send IGTV viewers to their YouTube pages where they have a better chance of making some money.
It should be interesting to see how IGTV would be welcome by Ghana content creators.
