Instagram community grows to more than 400m, sharing 80m photos daily

Instagram, the photo and video sharing app, has announced that its community has grown to more than 400 million users with more than 80 million photos per day shared on the platform.

That means that it’s grown by 100-million users in just nine months. For an app that is not new, the growth is significant as maturity is the enemy of all apps. Instagram was launched about five years ago and was acquired by Facebook in 2012 for approximately US$1-billion in cash and stock.

The company did not give numbers based on operating system but said that about 75% of Instagram users live outside of the US. Of the 100 million that have joined the platform in recent months, around half live in Europe and Asia. Among the leading countries that have had users join over the last month are Brazil, Japan and Indonesia.

Some of the big names to have joined the platform in the last few months include David Beckham, Caitlyn Jenner, Indonesia’s Raffi and Nagita, German soccer player Toni Kroos and South Korea’s T.O.P.

Read more: 5 South African social media numbers you need to know right now

“While milestones like this are important, what really excites us is the way that visual communication makes the world feel a little bit smaller to every one of us,” the company said in a blog post.

The company also highlighted its achievements, like the first image of Pluto and Champions’ League celebrations.

A study released last week by World Wide Worx and Fuseware revealed that in South Africa, Instagram was popular with media personalities but that businesses were slow on the uptake. The growth in numbers by Instagram could change this as businesses around the world might realise its reach.

Instagram’s growth also assists the company’s strategy towards maximising its photo and video advertising, adding more options to its carousel ads which it is introduced earlier this year.