NEW YORK: Instagram’s user base rose to more than 600 million, the Facebook Inc. owned company said on Thursday, as new features helped it gain popularity.
The photo-sharing app added 100 million users since June, when it last announced its 500 million user milestone, the company said in a blog post.
Since then, the company launched Instagram Stories, its picture and video slideshow feature, identical to the signature function of rival Snap Inc’s Snapchat.
Instagram in September updated its safety tools by allowing users to control the comments posted on their pictures and videos to combat increasing cases of online trolling.
The company, which is expected to add to Facebook’s revenue, is on track to generate $1.5 billion in advertising revenue this year, according to research firm eMarketer.
The rapid expansion of social media platforms on mobile devices, as well as faster Internet connectivity and more sophisticated technology, has triggered a huge shift in the way many people get their news.
The amount of money spent on advertising on social media is set to catch up with newspaper ad revenues by 2020, a leading forecaster said recently.
Advertising agency Zenith Optimedia, owned by France’s Publicis, predicts global advertising expenditure on social media will account for 20 percent of all Internet advertising in 2019, hitting $50 billion and coming in just one percent smaller than newspaper ads. It expects social media to overtake newspapers comfortably by 2020.
“Social media and online video are driving continued growth in global ad spend, despite political threats to the economy,” Jonathan Barnard, head of forecasting at Zenith, said.
The media industry has been convulsed by the rapid shift in advertising trends in recent years, with firms moving their ad budgets from traditional sources such as newspapers to websites found on computers and mobile phones.
Marketers are increasingly directing their spending to social media sites where ads blend into users’ newsfeeds on platforms such as Facebook and Snapchat proving more effective than interruptive banner formats.
The photo-sharing app added 100 million users since June, when it last announced its 500 million user milestone, the company said in a blog post.
Since then, the company launched Instagram Stories, its picture and video slideshow feature, identical to the signature function of rival Snap Inc’s Snapchat.
Instagram in September updated its safety tools by allowing users to control the comments posted on their pictures and videos to combat increasing cases of online trolling.
The company, which is expected to add to Facebook’s revenue, is on track to generate $1.5 billion in advertising revenue this year, according to research firm eMarketer.
The rapid expansion of social media platforms on mobile devices, as well as faster Internet connectivity and more sophisticated technology, has triggered a huge shift in the way many people get their news.
The amount of money spent on advertising on social media is set to catch up with newspaper ad revenues by 2020, a leading forecaster said recently.
Advertising agency Zenith Optimedia, owned by France’s Publicis, predicts global advertising expenditure on social media will account for 20 percent of all Internet advertising in 2019, hitting $50 billion and coming in just one percent smaller than newspaper ads. It expects social media to overtake newspapers comfortably by 2020.
“Social media and online video are driving continued growth in global ad spend, despite political threats to the economy,” Jonathan Barnard, head of forecasting at Zenith, said.
The media industry has been convulsed by the rapid shift in advertising trends in recent years, with firms moving their ad budgets from traditional sources such as newspapers to websites found on computers and mobile phones.
Marketers are increasingly directing their spending to social media sites where ads blend into users’ newsfeeds on platforms such as Facebook and Snapchat proving more effective than interruptive banner formats.
