Is IGTV a YouTube Killer?

A Laymen’s guide to IGTV and why you should care.

If you’re a daily Instagram user like I am, there’s no doubt you’ve seen the new “IGTV” feature (feature or platform?). Not only does it take up a ton of in-app real estate (in a bright orange gradient no less), but many of your favorite influencers have started promoting their new “channels” hardcore.

I spent a few hours watching and evaluating how people are using IGTV and took some notes for those of us who aren’t Insta-famous and clearly didn’t get the pre-brief.

Before we dive in, though, I have to acknowledge my bias. As many of you know, I worked at YouTube for a number of years and even led a team specifically focused on teaching off-platform influencers to find success on YouTube. In that role, this was the exact feature I feared the most. Why? Because frankly, people who are famous on Instagram expect to be instantly famous elsewhere, and it doesn’t always happen that quickly on YouTube.

Now that Instagram is a viable option for publishing longer-form video, some influential personalities and filmmakers will likely forgo experimenting with or investing in YouTube altogether.

Despite these creators having the desire, and often the talent to create higher quality videos, and earn those AdSense dollars doing it, the opportunity cost ultimately outweighs the benefits for many…at least for a while.

All of this is to say when I compare IGTV to YT, bear in mind I’ve been positioning the two platforms against each other for years, always pointing to YouTube as the platform of choice for next-level video creators.

So, let’s do this before my observations are irrelevant, shall we?

IGTV — What is it?
In short, IGTV is YouTube on Instagram.

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