In a recent development, Twitter is now allowing its users to post longer videos of up to 140 seconds. Since the start of 2016, Twitter’s Video engagement has increased by around 50 percent. This step will allow users to be more creative while publishing longer videos, and in addition, this functionality will be added on Vine as well.
Twitter wrote, “Starting today, you’ll have more room to unleash your creativity on Twitter. Where previously, uploaded videos were limited to 30 seconds, now anyone can create video tweets up to- you guessed it- 140 seconds long. (Select publishers will continue to be able to post videos up to 10 minutes long through our professional publisher tools).” It further stated that this update will be coming soon to Twitter for Mac and Twitter for Windows, as well. Soon, Vine will add this functionality of longer videos. Starting with a small group, creators will be able to add a video (up to 140 seconds to their Vine), turning the six second Vine into a trailer for a bigger story.
As of now, Twitter has decided to allow video publishers to make money out of their content on Vine, its video streaming service. Vine is going to make use of Twitter’s Amplify Open program, which runs ads during the commencement of the video. Vine, which earlier had a 6-second limit, will now use the same 6-second clip as the trailer for the 140-second videos.
Commenting on the shift in strategy, James Cakmak, an analyst at Crespi, said, “It is a good effort and sits within their overarching video strategy in empowering content creators, but it is not a silver bullet in alleviating the broader challenges in the business”.
Currently, Twitter is facing some serious competition in the mobile video category from ‘Instagram’ and the popular messaging app ‘Snapchat’.
