Instagram is now allowing its 300 million users to post landscape and portrait videos and images for the first time. Until now, the Facebook owned photo sharing platform only offered a square format.
The move is most likely linked to Instagram’s aim to push ahead with more advertising on the platform. “It turns out that nearly one in five photos or videos people post aren’t in the square format, and we know that it hasn’t been easy to share this type of content on Instagram,” the firm said in a blog post..
Other experts agree. “It boils down to giving advertisers and users more options”, analyst Debra Aho Williamson told Reuters.”You want people to be able to see more of your ad. It’s something advertisers are definitely going to be interested in.”
Conclusion: Expect a lot of more ads on Instagram, in varying sizes and shapes.