Instagram Now Has More Than 500 Million Users, Double The Count Since 2014

From a couple of years ago, Instagram has now doubled its number of users to 500 million. And from September of last year to today, the social media giant has added 100 million users, which is way faster than the rate it gained for the previous 100 million. 

It is also quite remarkable that 80 percent of Instagram users now are based outside the United States. Last September, that percentage was at 75 percent. The jump in percentage points is proof of the cross cultural appeal of pictures -- in whatever language, an Instagram moment captured and shared can indeed make a connection among various peoples of the world. 

In terms of daily usage, Instagram also reports that it now has 300 million daily active users. It may not be as effective as Facebook in drawing users’ attention for hours on end, but 300 million daily active users is a good indication that people do check Instagram on a daily basis, not only sharing through their own accounts, but also in browsing accounts they follow.

There was a time when Twitter was the definite second to the dominance of Facebook, but that notion was actually put to rest a couple of years ago when Instagram surpassed Twitter according the number of monthly users (Twitter has stuck at 320 million monthly users). Instagram is now also double the size of Snapchat. 

But surprisingly, the number of pictures posted on Instagram has actually slowed down somewhat. At 300 million monthly, there were 70 million pictures posted each day. At 400 million monthly, the number of images was 80 million daily. And now at 500 million monthly, the daily number of pictures is at 95 million. 

Still, Instagram appears to have a lot going on recently. It introduced a marketing program in the last year, made calls to action, extended video ads to 1 minute, starting showing video view counts to attract advertising partners, acquired 200,000 advertising partners, incorporated video carousel ads, and launched dynamic retargeting. Its latest effort sees the social media giant debut official business profiles that come with analytics and the option to instantly transform posts into adverts.

The obvious next step to sustain its success is to continue to improve its user experience. Users are accustomed to its real time feed by now, but the company is still trying to decide if it wants to go for a feed that is sorted algorithmically or stick to its current style. Whatever it chooses to do, it will sure have an effect on 500 million people and counting.