Facebook’s Instagram has hit a new milestone in its history by crossing the 500 million user mark. In a blog post, Instagram revealed that over 80% of its users are now based outside the U.S.
“Today, we’re excited to announce our community has grown to more than 500 million Instagrammers — more than 300 million of whom use Instagram every single day. Our community also continues to become even more global, with more than 80 percent living outside of the United States,” the blog post said.
Instagram, the photo and video sharing service owned by Facebook, came into existence in 2010. Two years later, Facebook bought it for about $750 million. At that time, the app had about 22 million monthly active users. Since then, the app has grown exponentially, due to ease of sharing images. In the past two years, Instagram’s user base has more than doubled. It reached 400 million monthly active users last September, and since then it has added another 100 million monthly active users, which were added at a faster rate compared to the previous 100 million users.
Facebook Messenger currently has over 1 billion users, whereas WhatsApp is being used by over 900 million people.
According to Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom, it was not an easy task to achieve a monthly following of over 500 million people, and this milestone indicates company’s desire to succeed in the competitive social media market.
Figures have revealed that Instagram now has 300 million active users per day. While 80% of the users are based outside the U.S., there are about 100 million monthly active users in the US. According to Credit Suisse, Instagram is likely to contribute $3.2 billion to Facebook’s annual revenue this year.
“As you’ve captured and shared the moments happening around you, you’ve formed incredibly varied and diverse communities,” the blog post said.
“Whether you’re an illustrator, a sneakerhead or an astronaut on the International Space Station, every photo and video you share helps bring people closer to friends and interests, broadens perspectives and inspires a sense of wonder. You’ve made Instagram a place where the everyday and the epic are always within reach.”
“Thank you for your creativity, your openness and your passion for sharing your worlds with one another. We can’t wait to see what you create next.”
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