75 % of its users live outside of the United States.
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By Raif Karerat
Facebook’s Instagram has reached 400 million monthly active users, pushing it far past the threshold of rival twitter.
It took nine months for the photo-sharing app to rack up its latest 100 million users, Instagram said in a blog post on Tuesday.
Among the last 100 million to join, more than half live in Europe and Asia with Brazil, Japan, and Indonesia adding the most Instagrammers, according to NBC News. The app said 75 percent of its users live outside of the United States.
Some notables were among the last 100 million to join Instagram including David Beckham, Caitlyn Jenner, Indonesia’s Raffi and Nagita, German soccer player Toni Kroos and South Korea’s T.O.P.
Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock in 2012. While the collosal deal seemed inordinately pricey at the time, it’s looking more and more like a bargain as Instagram looks to flex its advertising muscle.
Though Instagram’s advertising business is still in its nascent stages, research firm eMarketer expects Instagram to bring in $595 million in global mobile advertising revenue this year, $1.48 billion in 2016 and $2.81 billion in 2017, when it’s expected to generate more than 10 percent of Facebook’s advertising revenue, reported USA Today.
“Instagram reaches a different audience so that has an appeal to advertisers and they are selling it as a separate product as a branding tool,” Ian Maude, head of digital media at Enders Analysis, told CNBC. “The feedback I’ve had from media buyers on Instagram has been pretty good. I think we are going to see revenues on Instagram rise very quickly,” he continued.
Facebook also owns two other of the world’s most popular apps: WhatsApp, which it bought for billions and has 900 million users, and its native app, Facebook Messenger, which counts 700 million among its user base..