Nikhil Kamath on why Instagram never beat YouTube: ‘We need Indian answer’
Zerodha Co-founder Nikhil Kamath shared a LinkedIn post detailing why Instagram, owned by Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta, was never able to beat YouTube’s dominance in the long-form video content space.
The post said social media blew up in the early 2000s as for most people, sharing and watching what their friends were doing in their life was an “irresistible prospect”. “But these platforms soon realised that to keep their momentum, they would need to bring in some bigger guns,” the post added.
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It said that to bring more users and keep the existing ones, the platform needed creators to produce content themselves. This is where YouTube had a leg up as it was always created to be a content creation platform.
However, the post noted, Instagram also had a “huge advantage” which YouTube still does not – the ability for users to share content on the platform itself without having to switch to another platform.
“In other words, Instagram not only owned content but also served as a distribution platform. But YouTube has never had that: If you want to share something, you have to go off-platform,” Kamath’s post said.
This difference could have allowed Instagram to beat YouTube, which it did try to do by capitalising on its advantage by launching long-form content through IGTV in 2018.
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“But IGTV died a slow death and was retired in 2022,” the post said.
What went wrong with Instagram?
Kamath said the difference between Instagram and YouTube is destination and distraction. YouTube users go to the app with intent but people go to Instagram for indulgence, “simply because you are hooked and cannot help yourself”.
What this means is that YouTube users usually use the app or the website with intent while Instagram users do so out of habit or sometimes even addiction. “That’s why you often see people deactivating their Instagram to de-addict themselves but rarely does anyone ever delete YouTube app.
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The post noted that long-form video content failed to supplement Instagram users’ core needs of “quick shots of dopamine-driving entertainment” and IGTV being a separate app also “confused and alienated users”.
Creators also preferred to stick to YouTube and not shift to Instagram due to the former’s revenue-sharing model and the fact that the platform has always taken care of its creators.
Kamath finally noted that while YouTube might not make videos viral in the short-term, it is a “fantastic base for you to build a long-term career as a creator”.
