Everything You Need To Know About Amazon Inspire

Of all the global tech giants –- Apple, Google, Meta, and so on – an unbiased observer might think the last to get on the TikTok-style micro video bandwagon would be Amazon. Amazon's primary business, after all, is the sale of actual things, as opposed to apps, data, or advertising minutes. While Amazon certainly makes money from original content, its wheelhouse is still sending stuff to people with the minimum possible overhead. As Investopedia reports, Amazon is still fundamentally a mail-order retail company with a sideline in content.

And yet! Amazon has officially joined the Not-Quite-TikTok Club, right alongside YouTube Shorts and Meta's Reels on Facebook and Instagram. The House of Bezos is bringing a platform called "Inspire." Inspire is laser-focused on Amazon's core business, mixing bite-sized original content with copious purchase links for retail wares.

Amazon Inspire is already available on iOS and Android as a feature of the Amazon Shopping app. As to what it is, does, and means for the retail giant's future, read on.

Simply put, Amazon Inspire is an Amazon-branded video hosting service laser-focused on the Amazon shopping experience. Per Amazon, it is keeping the new video business carefully controlled. Inspire isn't an independent service, just a feature of the Android and iOS Amazon Shopping app. It provides users with video content tailored to their purchase history and extrapolated interests, along with like-minded purchase links.

As Phone Arena reports, the major difference between Inspire and other video hosting services is its relationship to user-generated content. User engagement with Amazon Inspire is sharply limited compared to other video services; according to Amazon, the only content they expect to allow from ordinary users is product reviews. Content creation is restricted to members of the Amazon Influencer Program and companies in Amazon's Brand Registry. Influencers will be able to post photos and videos from their Influencer storefronts to Inspire, while Brands will be limited to sharing photos.

All that being the case, treating Inspire as "Amazon's answer to TikTok" isn't quite accurate. For the present, Amazon appears to have no plans to host its own user-driven video hosting service. Rather, Amazon Inspire is a limited video service focused on using influencer and brand content specifically to motivate the company's retail sales.