The Facebook-owned photo and video sharing app announced late April 2017 that it reached a huge 700 million users.
It took six months for the app to reach 600 million monthly users in December 2016 and added the last 100 million new monthly active users in the past four months only. To put that in perspective, Instagram took 28 months to reach its first 100 million back in 2013.
Instagram has been aggressively rolling out new features in its battle to compete with rival Snapchat. Back in August 2016, Instagram debuted ‘Stories‘, a near carbon copy of Snapchat’s Stories, which had gained a huge following and threatened Instagram’s grip on users. This move has proved to be a success and has come at Snapchat’s expense. Snapchat saw its growth plummet 82% since Instagram launched Stories.
That feature now has 200 million Instagrammers on board, compared to Snapchat’s 161 million users.
With Instagram Stories, you can bring your story to life in new ways with text and drawing tools that will disappear after 24 hours and won’t appear on your profile grid or in feed.
The Instagram base is now twice the size of Twitter and 200 million ahead of LinkedIn – if your business isn’t represented on Instagram it might be time to get on board.
Facebook tried but failed to purchase Snapchat in 2013. It appears that the new line of attack is to copy.
After successfully copying Snapchat with Instagram Stories – 150 million use Instagram Stories every day, which roughly equals Snapchat’s total user base – Facebook is underway again on its head-to-head with Snapchat, by developing “Facebook Stories”.
Currently being tested in Ireland in the Facebook mobile app, a company spokesperson told Business Insider that Facebook plans to roll-out the “new format” to more countries in the coming months.
Facebook Stories works identically to Instagram Stories (and Snapchat Stories). You add photos and videos to your personal “story” for your friends to tap through, and everything you choose to share disappears after 24 hours. These won’t be shown in the News Feed or on your timeline, and like Instagram and Snapchat, you can reply directly to someone’s story with a direct message. You can also add selfie filters and Facebook’s version of Snapchat geofilters to photos and videos.