According to Facebook, its Instagram application has grown to more than 400 million users, 100 million of which were gained in the last nine months. Facebook paid $1 billion to acquire Instagram way back in 2012.
With its recent uptick in advertising earnings, that $1 billion investment from the social networking company has certainly paid off. As reported by Forbes, research firm eMarketer recently estimated that Instagram’s ad revenue will reach about $600 million this year and will grow to $1.5 billion in 2016 and $2.8 billion in 2017.
More than three-quarters of Instagram users live outside of the United States, and Instagram looks to expand that reach with the launch of 30 new countries in the month of September alone.
this makes Instagram more popular user-wise than Twitter
To put it into perspective, this makes Instagram more popular user-wise than Twitter, which has 316 million users. More than half of the aforementioned 100 million users that Instagram has gained in the last nine months live in Europe and Asia, according to the company’s stats, with 80 million photos shared each day on the service, an increase of 10 million from about three months ago.
“Congrats to Kevin, Mike and the entire Instagram community on reaching another big milestone,” Zuckerberg said Tuesday. “Kevin and I celebrated the moment by going for a walk on our roof to talk about the future of Instagram. I’m excited for the journey ahead.”
This is just the latest Facebook property to see such massive growth, with Facebook Messenger growing to 700 million active users this summer and WhatsApp growing to 900 million. Like WhatsApp and Messenger, Instagram is available for Android, iOS, and Windows, but also works on the web.