“We are no longer a photo-sharing application,” said Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram. He made this bold statement at the beginning of July 2021 in a video posted to his Instagram story and Twitter. In his video statement, Mosseri went on to explain that Instagram would be moving its focus to videos, messaging, shopping and creators.
Instagram has been moving towards video content for some time now with IGTV and Reels, which can be considered an unsuccessful attempt to compete with TikTok and YouTube in this space.
Instagram was founded as a photo sharing platform, which is its point of difference and why many people, including myself, enjoy using this app.
“People go to Instagram to entertain themselves” Mosseri has said, and with short form video taking over the internet, he believes it is imperative Instagram accept this shift in content and change to adapt to the changing landscape.
Mosseri also commented on the many different video formats Instagram has attempted to successfully implement, stating the platform “never did a good job reconciling new formats with old ones so it’s something [they] are working to clean up right now” with the new focus on video.
After receiving backlash, Mosseri clarified that Instagram would still support photos, as well as Explore, and that users would still be able to post their photos and see their friends photos in their feeds. The key differences that users are likely to see include full-screen videos in user feeds and videos from accounts users do not follow. Plus, changes to the algorithm, again!
Mosseri explained that full screen video is only the beginning, and we should expect to see Instagram experiment with various things in the upcoming months.
Since Instagram’s announcement there has been speculation around how this change of focus will affect the influencer landscape. Currently many influencers only post images to Instagram and copy across from TikTok short video to Instagram Reels as an after-thought.
It seems Influencers will need to produce bespoke video content for Instagram to stay relevant on this channel – but is video content what brands want influencers posting to Instagram? I believe many would prefer images to mitigate various risks, but maybe everyone needs to adapt to this disruption!
I’m curious to see how different brands will attempt to tackle these changes, and whose tactics will prove to be most successful.
Mosseri claims that Instagram will launch a rich suite of services for creators that provide different ways to make a living, reach audiences and tell their stories. However, it has yet to be made clear how Instagram will support this and what these services actually are. Will this change of focus be a success or cause its demise?
