Instagram buys HD video app Luma

Photo-sharing app Instagram acquired Luma, an HD video creation app, likely to add more professional features to its existing video product.

Luma announced the acquisition in a blog post saying the team helps people share “beautiful videos without expensive software or heavy equipment.” It goes on to say that joining Instagram helps it fulfill that mission, though Instagram is shutting down the app and absorbing its technology. Luma will be kept running until December 31. In the meantime you can still to download and save your videos.

Terms of the deal were not announced.

Instagram launched its own video product in June not long after Twitter introduced its popular micro-video app Vine. While Vine allows you to take 6-second videos, Instagram allows you to take 15-second videos. Furthermore, in proper Instagram fashion, you can add filters to these videos. Another feature that set Instagram’s video product apart is Cinema — a shake-reducing technology that lets you capture more professional-looking videos. This seems to be in line with Luma’s thinking and perhaps we expect more of these kinds of tools in a future update of the Instagram app.

Facebook purchased Instagram last year for $1 billion and has kept the app open to develop new social avenues and potential revenue streams for the company. Currently, Instagram does not support any advertising.

via VentureBeat http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/23/instagram-buys-hd-video-app-luma/