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Facebook's (FB) Instagram Inches Closer to 1 Billion Users
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Facebook Inc’s photo sharing app, Instagram could soon become a billion plus platform joining the likes of Facebook’s other subsidiaries, Messenger and WhatsApp. Facebook’s main platform boasts of over 2 billion users.
Reportedly, at an advertising event a couple of days back, Facebook’s vice president of global marketing solutions, Carolyn Everson announced that Instagram has added another 100 million users since April, taking the total count to 800 million. Instagram now has 500 million daily active users.
After opening its ad platform to worldwide advertisers last year, Instagram has emerged as an important cash cow for Facebook. Instagram has now over 2 million active advertisers. Moreover, the number of videos per day on the platform has increased four times while time spent on video viewing on the site has increased 80% year over year.
Facebook was subject to severe ridicule when it acquired this app for $1 billion in 2012.
Instagram Fends off Competition from Snapchat
With Instagram, Facebook is fending off competition from Snap Inc’s (SNAP - Free Report) Snapchat. Now, Snapchat is a very popular messaging service among teenagers, a very coveted group for advertising dollars. Given the serious competition, Facebook started to mimic its features so as to boost its own user growth and engagement levels. Notably, Facebook had tried to buyout Snapchat but CEO Evan Spiegel turned down the offer.
Facebook not only introduced Snapchat-inspired features but made it more popular than Snapchat. It could have rolled back these features had these not performed as its subsidiary platforms have inherent features that would have prevented loss of users.
On the other hand, analysts observe that Snapchat’s focus on a single demography (millenials) and absence of a proper international expansion strategy have cost it dear.
For instance, Instagram Stories, an unabashed copy of Snapchat’s feature of the same name has more than 250 million daily actives. In contrast, Snapchat’s total DAUs are a little more than173 million.
Snap Ups the Ante
Snapchat has added a number of new features to boost engagement and user growth in the last quarter to attract ad dollars. These include Stories in Search, 3D World Lens, Custom Stories, Snap Maps and Geofilters.
Recently, the company announced the addition of 14 new Creative Partners “to provide advertisers hands-on support to plan, executive and optimize Snap Ads campaigns.” The company’s Snapchat Creative Partner program was launched in June. For buying video ads, Snap introduced the self serve Ad Manager in June. The company launched two more advertising tools called Snapchat Mobile Dashboard and Business Manager. Further, in order to woo advertisers, the company acquired Placed (in June), a startup specializing in measuring success of digital ad campaigns.
In addition, to boost engagement levels over the long term, the company has been focused on boosting TV-style content on its platform. In the second quarter, it inked a $100 million content deal with Time Warner Inc to create 10 shows for its platform across various genres. Earlier, it had brought on board The Walt Disney Company’s (DIS - Free Report) ABC network as well as BBC and Vice Media.
More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone!
It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market.
Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 6 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2020.
Image: Bigstock
Facebook's (FB) Instagram Inches Closer to 1 Billion Users
Facebook Inc’s photo sharing app, Instagram could soon become a billion plus platform joining the likes of Facebook’s other subsidiaries, Messenger and WhatsApp. Facebook’s main platform boasts of over 2 billion users.
Reportedly, at an advertising event a couple of days back, Facebook’s vice president of global marketing solutions, Carolyn Everson announced that Instagram has added another 100 million users since April, taking the total count to 800 million. Instagram now has 500 million daily active users.
After opening its ad platform to worldwide advertisers last year, Instagram has emerged as an important cash cow for Facebook. Instagram has now over 2 million active advertisers. Moreover, the number of videos per day on the platform has increased four times while time spent on video viewing on the site has increased 80% year over year.
Facebook was subject to severe ridicule when it acquired this app for $1 billion in 2012.
Instagram Fends off Competition from Snapchat
With Instagram, Facebook is fending off competition from Snap Inc’s (SNAP - Free Report) Snapchat. Now, Snapchat is a very popular messaging service among teenagers, a very coveted group for advertising dollars. Given the serious competition, Facebook started to mimic its features so as to boost its own user growth and engagement levels. Notably, Facebook had tried to buyout Snapchat but CEO Evan Spiegel turned down the offer.
Facebook not only introduced Snapchat-inspired features but made it more popular than Snapchat. It could have rolled back these features had these not performed as its subsidiary platforms have inherent features that would have prevented loss of users.
On the other hand, analysts observe that Snapchat’s focus on a single demography (millenials) and absence of a proper international expansion strategy have cost it dear.
For instance, Instagram Stories, an unabashed copy of Snapchat’s feature of the same name has more than 250 million daily actives. In contrast, Snapchat’s total DAUs are a little more than173 million.
Snap Ups the Ante
Snapchat has added a number of new features to boost engagement and user growth in the last quarter to attract ad dollars. These include Stories in Search, 3D World Lens, Custom Stories, Snap Maps and Geofilters.
Recently, the company announced the addition of 14 new Creative Partners “to provide advertisers hands-on support to plan, executive and optimize Snap Ads campaigns.” The company’s Snapchat Creative Partner program was launched in June. For buying video ads, Snap introduced the self serve Ad Manager in June. The company launched two more advertising tools called Snapchat Mobile Dashboard and Business Manager. Further, in order to woo advertisers, the company acquired Placed (in June), a startup specializing in measuring success of digital ad campaigns.
In addition, to boost engagement levels over the long term, the company has been focused on boosting TV-style content on its platform. In the second quarter, it inked a $100 million content deal with Time Warner Inc to create 10 shows for its platform across various genres. Earlier, it had brought on board The Walt Disney Company’s (DIS - Free Report) ABC network as well as BBC and Vice Media.
More Stock News: This Is Bigger than the iPhone!
It could become the mother of all technological revolutions. Apple sold a mere 1 billion iPhones in 10 years but a new breakthrough is expected to generate more than 27 billion devices in just 3 years, creating a $1.7 trillion market.
Zacks has just released a Special Report that spotlights this fast-emerging phenomenon and 6 tickers for taking advantage of it. If you don't buy now, you may kick yourself in 2020.
Click here for the 6 trades >>