Facebook Unveils Video Feature for Instagram (FB)

Social networking giant, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) launched a video feature for its immensely popular, photo-sharing app, Instagram in its headquarters in Malone, California, on Thursday. With the help of “video mode”, a new addition in the existing Instagram app, users will now be able to make their short clips and upload it from their smartphones. “What we did to photos, we just did for video,” said Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom while addressing a press conference at Facebook’s Menlo Park, California headquarters. Instagram’s New Feature is better than Twitter’s Vine app A user can record up to 15 second of video, which is 9 second more than what is offered by Twitter’s video-sharing app, Vine service. Recording clips and uploading is very similar to the method used for Vine. For instance, a user in video mode will tap the smartphone to start and complete the recording. However, this feature also lets users to erase unwanted portion from the video—a feature which is absent in Vine app, for the moment. Another feature which Vine does not have is the inclusion of Instagram’s 13 video filters, explicitly created for videos. Moreover, Instagram has also included a stabilization feature, dubbed as Cinema, whose purpose is to eradicate wobbly handheld clips so that user’s uploaded video look lot steadier. Facebook’s co-founder and Chief Executive, Mark Zuckerberg, who made a brief appearance on stage during the product launch, said that Instagram would continue to grow. Facebook acquired Instagram just last year in deal valued at $ 1 billion. “We’re just really getting started with this product,” said Zuckerberg at the event. For Facebook, the launch of video-sharing app comes at a right time as it might help driving up its revenue from advertising. According to a researcher EMarketer, video is becoming one of the most favored segments for online advertising. It is estimated that the revenue from video advertising will exceed $4 billion this year, according to EMarketer.