REPORT: Why Instagram and Vine Video Usage Looks Bullish in the App Market

mobile app usage

Today Facebook unveiled a new Vine-like feature for Instagram, its photo sharing service, which will allow users to create short, 15-second long videos to share online. Video functionality would be the first major change to Instagram’s core services since it was acquired by Facebook for an estimated $1 billion. This new video upload feature is sure to encourage users to start seeing Instagram as an active social network rather than a passive place to upload photos.

There is strong evidence that suggests video uploading will only continue to grow, as 73% of internet users, or just over 1 billion people, already watch video clips online. This makes watching videos the number one online activity, so it’s safe to say that services like Vine and Instagram will encourage the video upload trend to surge.

Globalwebindex released a report analyzing the connected-device behavior of internet users aged 16-64 in 31 global markets, showing the usage percentage of specific apps. It appears location and social apps still dominate smartphone and tablet usage, as 54% of users reported using Google Maps within the past month in Q1 2013. Facebook was the second-most used app with 38% reported users, while YouTube, WeChat, and Google+ competed for third place (between 28% to 31% penetration). Suprisingly Twitter is lagging behind these services with only 20% mobile usage.

App Usage on Smartphones and Tablets

mobile app usage

Looking deeper into Instagram usage, only 10% of smartphone and tablet owners used the mobile app in Q1. Vine data shows a 1% adoption rate, yet it’s a relatively new service from Twitter that’s was released to the market only this year. So while YouTube and Facebook currently see the highest levels of video sharing on the web, given the vast landscape of videos online, there is significant ground for Vine and potentially Instagram to gain.

The ability to create short videos is a trend that’s been well received by brands and marketers who don’t have the budgets for large and expensive video shoots but are willing to try these cost-effective and viral video creation tools.

Are you on Vine yet? Do you use video as a content marketing tool?

Daniel Zeevi

By Daniel Zeevi

Daniel is a social network architect, web developer, infographic designer, writer, speaker and founder of DashBurst. Full-time futurist and part-time content curator, always on the hunt for disruptive new technology, creative art and web humor.

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