Dive Brief:
- Over the next week, live streaming video will become available to users of Instagram's Stories feature on a global scale, according to a company blog post. Live video for Stories was launched in November.
- In order to begin a live stream users swipe right from their feed and choose "Start Live Video" in the app's camera. Once the live stream is over, it disappears from the app.
- Users can also find live streams on the social media platform by going to "Top Live" on Explore within the user interface.
Dive Insight:
When Instagram Stories first launched in August last year, it seemed like yet another Snapchat clone, down to the "Stories" name. That didn't stop users from flocking to the feature, however, and since Stories has exploded in popularity, the platform has made concentrated strides to better distinguish itself. In November, it added deep links and more shareability options, and live video arrived just a few weeks later. Snapchat, while building out a variety of ad products and other features, has seemed less focused on live video than its growing stable of competitors, even as the format proves popular with users.
Live streaming video continues to be an important content type for marketers as well, though it’s still in its infancy in terms of audience penetration. Instagram's parent company Facebook has dropped paying publishers and celebrities for live video given the expense, though it's continued to push forward with a marketing campaign touting Facebook Live for regular users. In fact, Facebook Live passed YouTube recently as the most popular live streaming video option.
A global rollout of live Instagram Stories comes at a time when the platform is exploring better avenues toward monetization. Instagram started testing video advertisements and deeper business insights for Stories with brands including Capital One, Nike and Netflix earlier in January.