Instagram Shifts Focus to Video to Compete With TikTok

Instagram has reportedly reached 3 billion monthly users, reinforcing its position as parent company Meta’s key source of revenue growth.

As Meta works to keep driving that growth, it is shifting Instagram’s focus from the traditional photo feed to short-form video and private messaging, Bloomberg reported Wednesday (Sept. 24), citing its interview with Instagram Head Adam Mosseri.

The platform is making these shifts in response to changes in the way people use the app, according to the report.

While Instagram users used to focus on photos and posts from friends, they now usually use private messaging and Stories, which are photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours, to share content and spent half their time on the app watching videos, most of which are recommended to them rather than being from accounts they follow, the report said.

The platform is now going to highlight private messaging and its short-form video, Reels, on its home screen navigation bar, per the report.

In India and South Korea, it plans to test having the app open into Reels, rather than the traditional photo feed, according to the report.

Instagram will also test allowing users to hide or select topics so they can more directly influence the content they see, the report said. This feature will be enabled by artificial intelligence, which can now help identify and label content.

The platform’s changes are influenced in part by competition with TikTok, a rival that Mosseri told Bloomberg is “top of mind” at Instagram, per the report.

CNBC also reported Wednesday that Instagram now has 3 billion monthly active users and added that the figure was up from 2 billion in October 2022, when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg last disclosed that data.

The latest figure puts Instagram at about the same number as the Meta platforms Facebook and WhatsApp, the report said, citing earlier disclosures by Zuckerberg.

Instagram launched a version of its app that is optimized for Apple’s iPad and that device’s bigger screen on Sept. 3.

The company said at the time that the iPad version opens with Reels because people use bigger screens like the iPad’s for “lean back entertainment.”