Facebook is expected to make an announcement today, with various reports suggesting its photo-sharing app, Instagram, will get a video service.
Sources familiar with Facebook's plans yesterday told TechCrunch that Instagram plans to release a video product that has been in the pipeline for two years.
This is, however, not the first time reports of an Instagram video product have leaked, with sources last month revealing the service was being tested internally. Videos were reported to be between five and 10 seconds long.
Facebook bought the popular social photo-sharing application in September last year, for just over $715 million.
Why video?
Besides massive interest in photo and video sharing, according to TechCrunch, one of the biggest reasons for Facebook and Instagram to move into the video sphere is what Facebook already does best - marketing.
Although the photo-sharing app doesn't feature any ads yet, changes made to its terms and conditions in December last year regarding the implementation of advertising, resulted in a loss of users.
The announcement saw Instagram's daily active users drop 42%, from 16.3 million in mid-December to 7.6 million by 14 January, according to figures from monitoring company AppStats.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also previously indicated big brands have shown keen interest in advertising on Instagram, but added there were no plans to implement such a service.
Copycat
Instagram's video service will place it in direct competition with Twitter's Vine, but the sources said it would differentiate itself to avoid being labelled as a copycat.
Vine was introduced in January and allows users to upload six seconds of video onto its own network, Facebook or Twitter. It is available for both iOS and Android users, and reported to have 13 million users at the beginning of June.
The social media giant's last big announcement was its Home Android skin, along with the Facebook Phone, the HTC First, which comes preloaded with this feature. It has, however, been received with mixed feelings and the HTC First's UK release was delayed indefinitely following weak sales in the US.
Facebook declined to comment on the reports of an Instagram video product.
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