Instagram wants to monopolize your attention
Instagram wants to monopolize your attention
Instagram 想要垄断你的注意力
In its desperate race to keep up with YouTube and microdrama platforms, Instagram is pivoting to TV. 为了在与 YouTube 和微短剧平台的激烈竞争中不落下风，Instagram 正在向电视端转型。
This week, Instagram launched a series of new features for its smart TV app that are all designed to get people to spend more time on the platform through the biggest screens in their homes. In addition to vertical Reels, Instagram for TV — which is currently available for Amazon Fire TV, Google TV, and Samsung Smart TVs — users can now watch disappearing Stories and horizontal videos with aspect ratios similar to what you typically see on YouTube. And soon, Instagram will make a big push for longform, episodic content and TV-focused “live creator experiences.” 本周，Instagram 为其智能电视应用推出了一系列新功能，旨在通过家庭中最大的屏幕吸引用户在平台上投入更多时间。除了竖屏 Reels 之外，Instagram TV 应用（目前已登陆 Amazon Fire TV、Google TV 和三星智能电视）现在还支持用户观看“阅后即焚”的快拍（Stories）以及与 YouTube 常见的长宽比相似的横屏视频。不久之后，Instagram 还将大力推广长篇剧集内容和以电视为中心的“创作者直播体验”。
This foray into the TV space feels very different from the Meta-owned company’s previous attempts to capture more of our attention by adding functionalities borrowed from competitors like TikTok, Snapchat, and Periscope (RIP.) It’s all contingent on the idea that people want to sit on their couches to watch Instagram content that they would typically consume on their phones. 此次进军电视领域，与这家 Meta 旗下公司以往通过借鉴 TikTok、Snapchat 和 Periscope（已停运）等竞争对手的功能来争夺用户注意力的做法大不相同。这一切都建立在一个假设之上：人们愿意坐在沙发上，观看那些通常在手机上消费的 Instagram 内容。
The fact that we take our phones with us basically everywhere means that Instagram is always just a few taps away. The inherent portability of phone-based Instagram is arguably the biggest reason why the platform has managed to hit 3 billion monthly users. Scrolling through Instagram’s discovery page is something to do while you’re bored and already swiping through your phone. It’s easy to fire the app up and send videos to friends while you’re commuting, waiting for an elevator, or using the bathroom. But Instagram’s latest pivot is geared toward a more stationary experience that’s meant to be shared with people in the same room. This is a big bet. 我们几乎随身携带手机，这意味着只需轻点几下就能打开 Instagram。手机端 Instagram 的便携性可以说是该平台月活跃用户数达到 30 亿的最大原因。在无聊时刷刷 Instagram 的发现页面，是人们在玩手机时的习惯动作。无论是在通勤、等电梯还是上厕所时，随手打开应用并给朋友发送视频都非常方便。但 Instagram 最近的转型旨在提供一种更静态的体验，即与同处一室的人分享内容。这是一场豪赌。
Instagram says that community feedback is what inspired it to roll out the TV app’s new features. Some of them — like being able to cast Reels from your phone to your TV — make a certain amount of sense. If someone wants to share a funny video with a group, it’d be easier to throw it up onto a larger screen instead of大家 cluster around a phone. What feels a little more dubious are Instagram for TV’s new dedicated channels that are supposed to “make it easier to find videos everyone in the room can enjoy together” even though the feeds are tailored to individual users’ interests. Instagram 表示，社区反馈是其推出电视应用新功能的灵感来源。其中一些功能——比如将手机上的 Reels 投屏到电视上——确实有一定道理。如果有人想和一群人分享一段有趣的视频，投射到大屏幕上显然比大家围着一部手机看要方便得多。但令人怀疑的是 Instagram TV 新推出的专属频道，这些频道声称能“让大家更容易找到房间里每个人都能一起欣赏的视频”，尽管这些信息流本质上是根据个人用户的兴趣定制的。
It’s also hard to imagine people wanting to watch a carousel of Stories — which are essentially vertically oriented multimedia slideshows — on their televisions. Stories look awkward on widescreen displays, and interacting with them using a remote is much less intuitive than swiping through them on a phone’s touchscreen. This is probably why Instagram is also testing a dedicated section for widescreen content. The company’s plan to develop longform content and episodic series with creators is a sign that Instagram knows its TV app can’t just be a place where people scroll through videos that only last a few seconds. 也很难想象人们会想在电视上观看轮播的快拍（Stories）——这本质上是竖屏的多媒体幻灯片。快拍在宽屏显示器上看起来很别扭，而且使用遥控器进行交互远不如在手机触摸屏上滑动那样直观。这可能就是 Instagram 也在测试宽屏内容专属板块的原因。该公司计划与创作者共同开发长篇内容和系列剧集，这表明 Instagram 意识到，其电视应用不能仅仅是一个让人们刷几秒钟短视频的地方。
It’s obvious that Instagram is trying to capture some of the attention away from YouTube and newer upstarts like the many microdrama platforms that have begun popping up. Microdramas are already a booming business. The sector’s revenue is estimated to hit $14 billion by the end of the year. On mobile, Instagram is in a very good position to get into the microdrama game given the app’s built-in, massive user base. Most microdrama apps require you to sign up and then either pay per episode or subscribe to monthly or yearly plans to access their content. If Instagram can convince creators to start producing more of these kinds of videos on their own, the company could very well turn itself into a new microdrama hub. 显而易见，Instagram 正试图从 YouTube 以及近期涌现的众多微短剧平台手中抢夺用户注意力。微短剧已经是一个蓬勃发展的行业，预计到今年年底，该行业的收入将达到 140 亿美元。在移动端，凭借其内置的庞大用户群，Instagram 在进军微短剧领域方面处于非常有利的地位。大多数微短剧应用都需要用户注册，然后按集付费或订阅月度/年度计划才能观看内容。如果 Instagram 能说服创作者开始自主制作更多此类视频，它很有可能将自己转型为一个新的微短剧中心。
Instagram may be leading with the vertical content for the moment, but with the understanding that longform, horizontal videos need to become central to the TV app for it to succeed. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Instagram’s VP of product Tessa Lyons said that the company sees shortform content as “a very accessible way” for creators “to get into telling longer and more episodic stories.” Lyons also explained that part of what prompted the Instagram for TV’s new emphasis on longer videos was seeing creators using Instagram to promote their projects that live on other platforms. Instagram 目前可能仍以竖屏内容为主，但他们也明白，长篇横屏视频必须成为电视应用的核心，才能取得成功。Instagram 产品副总裁 Tessa Lyons 在接受《好莱坞报道》采访时表示，公司将短视频视为创作者“进入长篇和系列化叙事的一种非常便捷的方式”。Lyons 还解释说，Instagram TV 转向重视长视频的部分原因在于，他们观察到创作者一直在利用 Instagram 来推广他们在其他平台上发布的作品。
But even if more Instagram creators embrace longform, landscape video, the TV app is going to have a tough time becoming something akin to YouTube. Like Instagram, YouTube has copied some of its competitors’ features, but YouTube has always been a destination for a wide variety of content that lends itself to viewing on a larger screen. You might start watching a YouTuber’s skit or video essay, but it’s easy to wind up putting on a playlist of music videos or a feature-length studio film. The breadth of YouTube’s content library is why it continues to be the most-watched streamer in the US, and while there’s plenty to see on Instagram, the two platforms aren’t exactly comparable in terms of what they offer viewers. 然而，即使更多的 Instagram 创作者拥抱长篇横屏视频，该电视应用想要成为类似 YouTube 的平台仍将面临巨大挑战。和 Instagram 一样，YouTube 也曾复制过竞争对手的一些功能，但 YouTube 一直是各类内容的聚集地，非常适合在大屏幕上观看。你可能最初只是想看某个 YouTuber 的短剧或视频散文，但很容易就会转而去播放音乐视频列表或一部长篇电影。YouTube 内容库的广度使其能够持续成为美国观看人数最多的流媒体平台，尽管 Instagram 上也有很多内容，但这两个平台在为观众提供的内容方面并不具备直接的可比性。
There’s a level of commitment that comes with watching something on TV that Instagram content has never really had to worry about before. You don’t exactly have to lock all the way in to appreciate a short clip on your phone. But a video on the TV should be something that can sustain your attention for more than a few minutes. This TV pivot might work if Instagram can actually get creators to start churning out polished series instead of flooding the space with more phone-native content. But without a sharp influx of compelling projects that are crafted specifically for TV viewing, this could end up being another… 在电视上观看内容需要一种“投入感”，这是 Instagram 以前从未需要担心的问题。在手机上欣赏短视频时，你并不需要全神贯注。但电视上的视频应该能够吸引你持续观看几分钟以上。如果 Instagram 真的能让创作者开始制作精良的系列剧，而不是用更多手机原生内容充斥平台，那么这次电视端的转型或许能成功。但如果没有大量专门为电视观看而精心制作的引人入胜的项目涌入，这最终可能会成为又一个……