*By Madison Alworth*
Instagram launched its new long-form video content platform on Wednesday, a bid to take on YouTube and Snapchat and introduce a kind of viral element that made the now-defunct Vine so popular.
"It's mobile first. It's simple, and it's quality," said CEO Kevin Systrom at the press event introducing the new feature, dubbed IGTV.
Cheddar's Alex Heath, who was at the launch, said the new app targets a very specific audience.
"This is Instagram's teen plan," he said. "If I were to summarize the announcement, it would be all caps: TEENS."
The opportunity for growth is significant. While Instagram unveiled at the event that it broke the 1 billion monthly active user mark, a recent [PEW study](http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/) found that just 71% of those aged 18 to 24 use Instagram, compared to 94 percent on YouTube.
The Facebook-owned company hopes creating a platform with the same kind of premium video content will help close that gap. While anyone can publish to the platform, Instagram is also courting internet celebrities with big teen followings to create content. It's already brought on the likes of [Fortnite champion Tyler "Ninja" Blevins](https://cheddar.com/videos/ninja-on-fortnites-future-in-esports), Selena Gomez, and Kim Kardashian.
IGTV will exist both within the Instagram app and as a standalone product and can host vertical videos up to 60 minutes in length.
And while there are no current plans to monetize that content, Roger Cheng, executive editor at CNET, said that the longer format will be much more attractive to advertisers than Instagram's previous offerings, which were too short and incompatible for things like pre-roll ads.
"You imagine that ads will start seeping into this service," Cheng said in an interview with Cheddar. "You can't monetize \[the previous\] business. So that's why you see Instagram investing into that long-form content, because that is where ad dollars are going."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/instagram-launches-igtv-platform-for-long-form-video).
The Trump administration has issued its first warnings to online services that offer unofficial versions of popular drugs like the blockbuster obesity treatment Wegovy.
Parents of teenagers who died by suicide after interacting with AI chatbots are set to testify before Congress.
Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama says his new Cabinet will include an artificial intelligence “minister” in charge of fighting corruption. The AI, named Diella, will oversee public funding projects and combat corruption in public tenders. Diella was launched earlier this year as a virtual assistant on the government's public service platform. Corruption has been a persistent issue in Albania since 1990. Rama's Socialist Party won a fourth consecutive term in May. It aims to deliver EU membership for Albania in five years, but the opposition Democratic Party remains skeptical.
The Federal Trade Commission has launched an inquiry into several social media and artificial intelligence companies about the potential harms to children and teenagers who use their AI chatbots as companions.
Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
