Three weeks ago, Instagram announced it had hit the 700 million monthly users mark. An impressive stat by all accounts, but all the more so when once considers that in September 2015, that figure stood at less than 400 million – practically doubling its tuser count in just two years.Â
Music to the ears of its shareholders, especially considering that competitors such as Snapchat have seen a discernible slowdown in their users’ growth in recent times. Insta’s 700 million user milestone now puts it at double the size of Twitter, for example.
And, much to Snapchat’s undoubted chagrin, that growth will be owed in part to Instagram’s disappearing posts feature, Instagram Stories, a relatively recent addition to the platform that now boasts 200 million daily active users (to Snapchat’s 161 million)
This surge in users has also been felt keenly in the Middle East with 63 million people uploading to Insta every month.Â
To put it in perspective, here’s a timeline of Insta’s success story…
- October 6, 2010 – Instagram founded
- December 21, 2010 – 1 million
- September 26, 2011 – 10 million
- April 9, 2012 – 30 million
- November 6 2012 – 80 million
- February 26, 2013 – 100 million
- March 25, 2014 – 200 million
- December 10, 2014 – 300 million
- September 22, 2015 – 400 million
- June 21, 2016 – 500 million
- December 15, 2016 – 600 million
- April 26, 2017 – 700 million