US — TechCrunch

Watch out, YouTube — Instagram goes from short-form to 90-minute videos

SoftwareOctober 27, 20261 min read

Instagram is testing a new kind of video called "Features" that can be up to 90 minutes long. This could challenge YouTube, the platform where creators earn the most money.

What happened

Instagram said it is testing a new video upload type called "Features." Creators can post videos up to 90 minutes long. This is a big change, because for years Instagram and other apps pushed short videos only.

Key numbers and facts

Feature videos can be up to 90 minutes long.
YouTube Partner Program creators get 55% of the ad money from their videos.
YouTube said it paid more than $100 billion to creators, artists, and media companies over the previous four years.
Instagram says it spends more money on its small performance-based program than it earns back.

Why Instagram pays creators less

Most creators on Instagram make money mainly from brands that pay them to promote products. Some earn from fans. Short videos are hard to make money from because there is less room for ads. YouTube's model is simple: it puts ads on videos and shares the money with creators. Instagram tried long videos before with IGTV, but it shut that product down.

Why it matters

Creators want to earn money from their work. If Instagram adds ads to long videos, it could compete with YouTube for the first time. It would also keep fans on Instagram, instead of sending them to YouTube for longer content.

What to watch

Whether Meta adds ads to long Instagram videos.
How well the "Features" test works with creators and viewers.
Whether Instagram launches a clear way to pay creators.
How the "Clips as Reels" tool sends viewers from short clips to full videos.

Glossary

Instagram: A social media app owned by Meta where people share photos and videos.
YouTube: A video site where creators upload videos and can earn money from ads.
Meta: The company that owns Instagram and Facebook. It earns most of its money from ads.
Reels: Instagram's short, vertical video format.
YouTube Partner Program: A YouTube program that lets creators earn a share of the ad money from their videos.
IGTV: An older Instagram app for long videos. Instagram has shut it down.

Databricks co-founder shares his secrets for winning big enterprise customers

Databricks co-founder Arsalan Tavakoli-Shiraji told TechCrunch Disrupt that startups often wrongly assume their technology will sell itself to large enterprises, when people and processes matter most. He described how Databricks won major clients by selling under Microsoft's Azure partnership, which gave it access to Microsoft's sales team and contract terms, and how he frames enterprise AI concerns as context, choice, cost, and control.

SoftwareThe VergeOct 27

The RealReal won’t let AI agents hog designer clothing

The RealReal, a secondhand luxury consignment retailer, says it has updated its bot defense system, making it harder for AI agents to shop on its site. The change followed a Verge report that Meta's Muse agent could keep re-adding items to a cart as their 20-minute holds expired, blocking other shoppers for hours. The company said agents can still surface listings and direct users to product pages.

Softwareheise onlineOct 26

The Data Governance Drama Before Test Launch and How to Resolve It

The article describes a recurring pattern in which test data is overlooked during data architecture planning because no one owns it. Shortly before test start, teams lack sufficient and representative test data, and responsibility is passed between IT and business departments. The author proposes a three-level responsibility model, introduced early in architecture design, as a remedy.

SoftwareVnExpressOct 26

Vietnamese Engineers Build Telecom Billing System Serving 100 Million Subscribers

Viettel High Tech says its in-house vOCS 4.0 online charging system can handle more than 300,000 transactions per second and serve 100 million subscribers. The company said it won the "Asia Region Excellence in Technology Deployment" category at the Telecom Review Excellence Awards 2026, the first time a Vietnamese company has been honored at the event. The system has been used to migrate Viettel's Vietnamese mobile subscribers and about 5,000 service packages, and the company says it can also be sold to other operators.