Newly-minted unicorn Quora has even bigger ambitions than text questions-and-answers. And it’s not going to let video giants or startups disrupt its future.
This week Quora began testing video answers, because sometimes it’s a lot easier to show someone how something works, the best way to complete a task, or why one thing is better than another than try to write it out for them. Users in the beta group will be able to record videos on iOS or Android as supplements or complete answers that everyone on Quora can watch. It’s considering allowing video uploads, which might offer more polished content but increase spam concerns.
Previously, Quora only let users answer with text, natively hosted photos, links, and embedded videos from platforms like YouTube. Now it’s actively hosting and soliciting video uploads.
By combining the feature with its upvote system, Quora could steal some How-To video content from its current home on YouTube, where SEO and popularity can overshadow accuracy. Quora’s video answers will be sorted by how useful they are to the community, not just how they’re shared and promoted.
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