YouTube really is feeling like the odd one out of the social media giants recently. If the biggest social media apps were the Plastics, YouTube would definitely be Gretchen Wieners – the one always trying to fit in. Just last week, YouTube launched a site-wide Originals service, obviously in the shadow of streaming giant Netflix.
Seven day stories?!
This week, YouTube is attempting to regain their popularity, by adding a Stories feature. The popular feature is already available on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, in which users can upload snaps or a short video clip and it will disappear after 24 hours on display.
However, YouTube have decided to extend the life of their stories drastically. YouTubers will be able to upload to their Stories feature and their pictures and video clips will be available for a startling seven days.
Who can access the feature?
The feature will only be available to YouTubers with a large subscriber audience (10,000+), as YouTube believes this will allow their prominent creators to connect with their audience on a more personal level. Because Google (the owners of YouTube) seems simply to be playing an unwarranted game of catch up with other apps, it doesn’t seem too unlikely that this feature will go ignored, even by its biggest users.
Those who have built up a reliable audience of millions already know how to connect with their audience on a personal level, so all in all this move by YouTube seems another desperate move by the once video-giant, panicking because it could be losing its online marketability.
How popular will the feature be?
We’ll just have to wait and see whether this feature becomes anything worthwhile on YouTube, but as a user who has been there since the start way back in 2006, it seems fair to say that what draws millions of users to YouTube day in and day out is the simple fact that it is a sleek, simple video-sharing website. There’s no need to change, YouTube. We like you as you are.
