The latest video service, Vine, has accumulated 20 million users since its inception. In response to the Twitter based app’s success, Facebook now has its own. Users can shoot their videos through the company it bought last year, Instagram.
The videos on Vine are six seconds long whereas the new Instagram feature gives users fifteen seconds to take video. The video icon on Instagram can be found right next to the one where you take photos and comes with thirteen filters to play around with.
Kevin Systrom, Instagram co-founder says, “We’re excited to see what the community will bring to video, whether it’s your local cafe showing you just how they made your latte art this morning or an Instagrammer on the other side of the world taking you on a tour of their city, a mother sharing her joys in parenting as her children laugh and play or your favorite athlete taking you behind the scenes.”
Short video bursts are the latest fad and even President Obama has his own Vine video. In it he’s riding a stationary bike that powers a water filtration system at the White House Science Fair. Burberry used Vine as a marketing tool. Their video condenses a fashion show in to a six second clip.
Usually the social media giant Facebook is ahead of the game but this is one of those rare instances where it follows someone elses lead. Is it a bad sign? In an April article in the Guardian it came out that less people are logging in than usual in the last six months. The site has nine million less visitors in the United States and two million in the UK. After a noticeable decline, Facebook hopes to keep users more engaged with their new video service and have similar success as Twitter did with Vine.
[Source: New York Times, Instagram Blog, Guardian]