Facebook is pulling out all plugs to capture the millennials market with Instagram and to stay ahead of its competitor Snapchat. With Stories and the shop browsing feature that it added this year, Instagram wants to be the one-stop destination for all millennial needs. In a bid to further its stronghold, the company has now added live video as well, a few months after Facebook added this feature earlier this year.
Live Video on Instagram works differently than Facebook though, as Facebook does not want it to overlap with its other features for Messenger. For Instagram, Live Videos is incorporated in the Stories feature and is only available till the user is live. After the live stream ends, the video is not available for others to see, unlike Facebook Live videos which get stored on the timeline for later viewing as well.
Instagram Stories, which was launched in August this year, already has over 100 million people using the feature. Live video streaming which was made popular with earlier apps such as Periscope and the now defunct Meerkat, has been one of the rising stars of social media this year.
Other new features added to Instagram are the disappearing photos and videos for groups and followers in Instagram Direct. “This update keeps regular direct messages the same and adds a more visual way to connect with your closest community members — all in one convenient place,” the company explained in a blog post.
DIG THE DATA
Wrong InfluenceFake news stories about the US presidential race generated more engagements on Facebook than real stories during the closing months of the election, according to a report by BuzzFeed news. It revealed that made-up articles from hoax websites received more likes, shares and comments on Facebook than the best-performing election stories from major news outlets. During the final three months of the US presidential campaign, the 20 best-performing fake election stories accrued more than 8.7 million interactions on Facebook, while the top 20 articles from major publications such as the Washington Post and NY Times generated 7.4 million interactions.
BRAND BUZZ
Stories On Hike India’s home-grown mobile messaging app Hike is following in the footsteps of Snapchat by launching a Stories feature for its users. The stories posted on Hike will also be ephemeral and be available for 48 hours only. Users will be able to see how many people viewed their stories and who all did. Stories replace the old Timeline feature on the app. Hike has also launched its own camera features, much like Snapchat, with live filters. The app has over 12 live filters available for users. It is also looking to add a new videos feature to the app in a few weeks.
#LEADER
Kunal Shah
@kunalb11Chairman, Freecharge
“Countries that don’t have DNA of innovation, focus a lot on competition of existing ideas which only end up in erosion of profits for all.”
Suhel Seth
@suhelseth Author
“What the Supreme Court should mandate is the playing of the National Anthem in Parliament. That is where we need greater unity!”
