Author: Wanshan Yibasuo | Source: Short Drama Study Room | Cover image: Pexels
Per Bloomberg, Meta's Instagram is doubling down on video with several new features, responding to competition from TikTok and YouTube while further expanding its TV business.
Among them, "Series" — built specifically for episodic short dramas — is being tested with select creators in the United States, Mexico and India.
Meanwhile, Instagram has launched "Features," landscape video of up to 90 minutes, and plans to expand live content's exposure across the recommendation feed and Reels.
Instagram's VP of Product, Tessa Lyons, said Reels' success has created the conditions for the platform to expand into other video formats. Currently, users share Reels vertical short videos via DMs 4.5 billion times a day.
However, Instagram Reels has a duration cap: videos over 3 minutes won't be recommended to new users. Features is designed to break through that limit, letting creators experiment with longer video and keeping users watching and engaging on-platform.
On the TV front, Instagram launched a dedicated TV app last year that lets users watch Reels on big screens, expanding from Amazon Fire TV to Samsung and Google TV.
This Monday, Instagram TV will also launch on Apple TV in the US, incorporating the newly introduced video formats.
As TikTok drives short dramas viral overseas and YouTube rolls out "Shorts series" episodic programming, Instagram is accelerating its own push. Competition among short-video platforms is extending from traffic battles to longer-form content formats like short dramas.
