WASHINGTON: Facebook-owned Instagram has hit 400 million monthly active users, making it far larger than Twitter as the social networking site looks to boost advertising revenues from the service.
It took nine months for the photo-sharing app to rack up its latest 100 million users in which celebrities such as soccer star David Beckham and former athlete Caitlyn Jenner joined the service, Instagram said in a blog.
Among the last 100 million to join, more than half live in Europe and Asia with Brazil, Japan and Indonesia adding the most Instagrammers. The app said 75 percent of its users live outside of the U.S.
Facebook-owned Instagram has hit 400 million monthly active users, making it far larger than rival Twitter, as the social networking site looks to boost advertising revenues from the service.
It took nine months for the photo-sharing app to rack up its latest 100 million users in which celebrities such as soccer star David Beckham and former athlete Caitlyn Jenner joined the service, Instagram said in a blog post.
The latest numbers will be a big boost for Facebook as it looks to monetize Instagram. It has recently introduced a number of features such as sponsored posts and is planning to introduce targeted ads too. Advertising revenue generated by Instagram will hit $600 million this year, and jump over 146 percent to reach $1.48 billion in 2016, eMarketer estimates. Instagram ad revenue will account for 14 percent of Facebook’s total mobile ad revenue in 2017, eMarketer predicts, highlighting how key the standalone app will become for the social networking site.
Instagram is Facebook’s only other wholly-owned platform which carries advertising and it’s being received positively by potential clients, analysts said.
“Instagram reaches a different audience so that has an appeal to advertisers and they are selling it as a separate product as a branding tool,” Ian Maude, head of digital media at Enders Analysis added.
