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Ever noticed how online platforms functionally tend to melt together?

Instagram started out as a photo sharing platform. In 2013, they introduced support for 15-second videos. In 2016, it was extended to one minute. In the same year, Stories known from Snaochat were introduced.

Same about Twitter: originally intended for microblogging (short text), but later expanded to photo sharing (2012) and finally video (2015), albeit restricted to 140 seconds per video and no manual quality selection.

Reddit too. They also introduced an self-hosted image hoster and later videos too (not sure which exact year).

And Facebook supports videos with no length and 1080p, as far as I know. If it were like that in 2006, it would have been considered a full YouTube alternative.

Also, YouTube got a Stories feature in 2018, but it only os accessible from the mobile app, a restriction Instagram usually is infamous for. Ironically, Instagram allows viewing stories through desktop website and API, which https://insta-stories.com/ allows to view without login.

If you have examples to add, feel free to comment.

Ever noticed how online platforms functionally tend to melt together? Instagram started out as a photo sharing platform. In 2013, they introduced support for 15-second videos. In 2016, it was extended to one minute. In the same year, *Stories* known from Snaochat were introduced. Same about Twitter: originally intended for microblogging (short text), but later expanded to photo sharing (2012) and finally video (2015), albeit restricted to 140 seconds per video and no manual quality selection. Reddit too. They also introduced an self-hosted image hoster and later videos too (not sure which exact year). And Facebook supports videos with no length and 1080p, as far as I know. If it were like that in 2006, it would have been considered a full YouTube alternative. Also, YouTube got a *Stories* feature in 2018, but it only os accessible from the mobile app, a restriction Instagram usually is infamous for. Ironically, Instagram allows viewing stories through desktop website and API, which https://insta-stories.com/ allows to view without login. ----- If you have examples to add, feel free to comment.

(post is archived)

[–] • 2 pts

the reason they all push video is that stupid people are subliterate and prefer to watch things. stupid people are also much better advertising targets. data showed that people who prefer to read are also smart enough to ignore/block ads.

advertising-supported businesses are against you because of your IQ and good judgment. don't use them, don't rely on them, don't build them.

[–] • 0 pt

The problem is that running a new platform without advertising is difficult.

A video platform in the size of YouTube is technically not possible without ad revenue.

[–] • 1 pt

Old, but Facebook was originally just the profiles, with a "wall" folks could comment upon. Your photo albums were elsewhere. But soon they made it possible to put facebook photo albums