Facebook is getting ready to host a press event on June 20th, and lots of rumors are being tossed around about what the company is going to unveil. Most of them have to do with the company’s recent acquisition of Instagram. Oh Zuck, you big rockstar you, what are you going to do with Instagram?
As reported by TechCrunch, Facebook is gearing up to announce Vine-like video sharing functionality for Instagram. With Vine, which happens to be from the same company that developed Twitter, users record five to ten second videos, and then upload them to the social network. Think of it as a Twitter clone, only with video content instead of traditional Tweets or status posts.
Vine has been quite successful in gobbling up a fairly large user base, so it’s not exactly a surprise that Instagram and Facebook are looking to do the same. At this time, it’s not really clear whether or not the functionality will be added to Instagram or if it will come in the form of another mobile app. Perhaps the two companies are planning to launch another video-only service? Then again, why would they draw traffic away from Instagram when they should be bringing traffic in?
Of course, Facebook has yet to monetize the Instagram service and we all know it’s coming. Adding video content to Instagram would be great for users sure, but it would also be great for advertising. Companies could produce ad clips that play, possibly even before you can watch certain types of content. If that were the case, it would end up being a lot like YouTube where sometimes you have to watch an advertisement or two before you can watch actual content.
How many of you out there use Vine? Would you switch to Instagram completely if the service implemented video sharing? How would you feel if advertisements started appearing on Instagram (it’s probably going to happen sooner than later)?
Hopefully we’ll have more information for you soon, especially since June 20th is right around the corner. Do you have any predictions about what Facebook is going to announce?
Source: TechCrunch