Instagram now has over 400 million active users, having added a whopping 100 million consumers since the beginning of the year. Approximately 80 million pictures and videos are shared on a daily basis through the social networking app.
The 400 million mark is impressive considering Instagram is only 5 years old. The new figure means the company has more users than rivals like Twitter, which has over 300 million members. According to a blog post by the photo-sharing app, roughly 75% of its consumers are based in countries outside of the US.
More than half of the 100 million new users who have joined this year are from Europe and Asia. The countries which have contributed the maximum number of members are Japan, Indonesia and Brazil. Instagram is populated by quite a few celebrities, some of the more recent ones including names like Caitlyn Jenner and David Beckham.
Instagram was bought out by Facebook in 2012 and has added a number of changes since then. It now has support for landscape and portrait mode, rather than the previous square-only model it was sticking to earlier. The application controversially ramped up its advertising platform recently, in order to allow marketers greater access to users.
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Sponsored posts can now be seen in a person’s timeline in more than 30 countries, including India. While consumers can share only 15-second videos, brands can include ads running up to 30 seconds. Instagram has further started a premium advertising service called Marquee. The scheme is meant to spread awareness among a large number of people within a limited period of time.
It’s designed to create excitement around events like film premieres and product launches. eMarketer, an industry tracker, estimates Instagram’s global ad revenue will rise quickly with these new developments. It could even touch the $600 million mark, which translates to about Rs 3959 crores.