Instagram Unveils New Long-Form Video Hub

“It truly wouldnt have happened without all of you”, CEO Kevin Systrom said of hitting the one-billion-user-mark.

IGTV will enable any user to upload long-form videos and will also include “channels” from video “creators”, similar to a format employed by Google-owned YouTube. IGTV will start rolling globally over the next few weeks on Android and iOS. Anyone will be able to upload videos for Instagram‘s new IGTV section, which will display them full-screen and vertically, the way people naturally hold their phones.

The way you watch videos is a mix between what you can find on Facebook with the pause and play button, a timeline to skip through the footage; how Instagram Stories work with the possibility of swiping through different videos, but then you still retain the like, comment, and share buttons of Instagram.

Called IGTV, the platform will be a standalone app and also accessible inside the existing Instagram app, in a place separate from users’ main feed.

Instagram’s platform is also reaching a huge milestone today: 1 billion users. Each of IGTV’s channels will belong to a “creator”, some of whom were present at the event-social media star Lele Pons, for example, gave a preview of her IGTV cooking show-but Instagram emphasized in its announcement that anyone can be a creator.

IGTV won’t have ads at launch, but they will most likely be added later. IGTV videos can will be up to one hour. This move could significantly increase that amount, making Instagram a destination for watching videos as much as checking up on friends’ latest adventures.

During its event this afternoon, Instagram brought on stage content creator Lele Pons, who now has more than 25.1 million followers on the platform, to talk about a new cooking show she’s planning for IGTV. With IGTV, videos can be a max of 60-minutes-long.

Simple and intuitive: It starts playing as soon as you open the app.

Why it matters: YouTube is still the biggest draw in the industry but with other social platforms like Instagram invading their territory, its grip on the market could be in jeopardy.

Instagram shared some stats on its website promoting the IGTV that mobile video content will make up for 80 percent of the total mobile data traffic in the next three years. The information about the new app was also made public on Instagram’s business blog right before the executive took to the stage.

The app will go head to head with YouTube and Snapchat’s new explore feature. YouTube has launched YouTube Premium, a paid streaming-subscription service, and YouTube TV, a skinny bundle of live-streaming broadcast and cable channels.