Instagram does a YouTube, launches IGTV app for hour-long vertical videos

Aiming to take on Google-owned YouTube, popular photo-sharing platform Instagram announced it would allow users to upload videos up to one hour in length, up from the previous one-minute limit, adding that it has hit the milestone of one billion users worldwide.

"We launched IGTV (a button inside the Instagram home screen, as well as a standalone app) at an event featuring many of the Instagram creators who'll make it great," the company wrote in a blog post late on Wednesday.

Not just celebrities, IGTV will let all users be a creator and let them upload vertical videos through Instagram's app or the web.

"It is a new app for watching long-form, vertical video from your favourite Instagram creators, like LaurDIY posting her newest project or King Bach sharing his latest comedy skit. While there's a standalone IGTV app, you'll also be able to watch from within the Instagram app so the entire community of one billion can use it," the company added.

Notably, the longer-form, vertical video service -- which will work as a bolt-on feature to Instagram as well as having a standalone app of its own -- is very important to parent company Facebook.

With IGTV, Instagram, as it has done in the past, is copying features pioneered by others. It assumes that its immense scale and resources can make its version the winner, even if it is well late to the party, according to BBC.