Instagram is a social networking application developed by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger to enable the sharing of photos and was launched as an iOS app in October 2010.
The Instagram app allows users to take pictures, supports edit features, and has a variety of digital filters, which resulted in the term “tweaking pictures” being coined. Users can add a picture or video, and filter it to transform the image into memory for storage and posting or sharing on other popular social networking platforms.
In July 2012, Instagram was acquired by Facebook at an estimated value of US$ 1 Bn. In the coming months that followed, the global Instagram Community registered 80 Million users, with around 4 billion photos shared globally. The year 2012, they introduced new and improved translations for 25 languages, on both mobile devices and web portals.
The year 2013, Instagram was introduced for Windows phone, and support over 100 Million users per month. In the year 2015, the global Instagram Community increased to over 400 Million users, with over 80 million photos shared each day.
In the month of September 2015, Instagram introduced a business profile feature for advertising purposes, and with the high adoption of Instagram Stories in 2017, there were 8 Million registered businesses using business profiles and 1 Million advertisers on the platform till the year-end. Countries with the highest adoption are currently the US, Brazil, Indonesia, Russia, and the UK.
In 2018, Instagram had over 800 Million active users monthly, 500 Million active users daily, and Instagram’s stories had 500 Million daily active users. Moreover, Instagram registered 50 Billion photos shared, with 100 Million+ photos & videos uploaded per day, and around 60% of users log in daily, which has resulted in being the second-highest social networking engagement app after Facebook.
An ongoing trend since 2018 is that is widely used as a marketing platform by businesses, for the promotion of events or activities, for sharing of food blogs, etc. Instagram has approximately 25 Million registered businesses, and over 4.2 Billion Instagram Likes are clicked on per day.
On the basis of demographics, 90% of Instagram’s users are younger than 35 years of age and 68% of Instagram users are female.
During Facebook F8, it was announced that Instagram would, beginning in Canada, pilot the removal of publicly displayed “like” counts for content posted by other users. Like counts would only be visible to the user who originally posted the content. Mosseri stated that this was intended to have users “worry a little bit less about how many likes they’re getting on Instagram and spend a bit more time connecting with the people that they care about. It has been argued that low numbers of likes in relativity to others could contribute to lower self-esteem in users. The pilot began in May 2019 and was extended to 6 other markets in July. The pilot was expanded worldwide in November 2019. Also in July 2019, They announced that it would implement new features designed to reduce harassment and negative comments on the service.
Instagram feature of video sharing and video stories called ‘Insta Stories’ is a simplified version of the feature offered by Facebook, and the emphasis is more on mobile use and easy visual sharing among users or Instagrammers. Similar to other social media apps, It offers features wherein a user can follow, comment, like, tag, and send private messages to other users. Instagram’s users use hashtags and geotags, and graphical stickers which allow them to creatively express themselves.
Instagram’s Background History
2010: On October 6, Instagram was launched as a photo-sharing application, and had over 1 Million active users by 12 December 2010.
2011: On March 21, Instagram organized its first worldwide InstaMeet, which was a group of Instagrammers to meet, click, and share videos and photos together. The same year, they were announced as the iPhone App of the Year. By the end of September, Instagram introduced Version 2.0 with four new filters, and by late November, launched the weekend hashtag project #VHP.
2012: On April 3, Instagram launched its application for Android users globally. In addition, Facebook acquired Instagram on 9 April. On July 26, Instagram had 80 Million registered user accounts and launched Version 3.2 with a new filter, and Version 3.4.1 which supports 25 languages by the year-end.
2013: On February 05, Instagram introduced to feed on the web and features that enable tagging of photos. On June 20, the company introduced videos, in September announced iOS 7, and in November introduced Windows Phone. On December 12, they introduced Instagram direct.
2014: On June 03, They introduced new creative tools on Instagram and Hyperlapse on August 26. On December 10, they had 300 Million registered users sharing real moments worldwide.
2015: On April 27, Instagram launched three new filters and emoji hashtags and celebrated a registered community of 400 Million users on September 22. On October 22, the company introduced Boomerang, which collaborates a burst of photos into a mini video that can be rewound and forwarded.
2016: On April 14, Instagram introduced video channels in Explore.
- On May 11, a new look was launched,
- On August 31, Instagram introduced the Zoom feature,
- October 18 stories feature on Explore on,
- On December 21, They introduced the saved posts feature and had a registered base of 600 Million active users.
2017: On January 24, Instagram launched live stories globally. On March 22, new Geostickers for Stories was launched for Sao Paulo and had 1 Million registered advertisers worldwide. The same year, they launched a series of geo-stickers and face filters, including St. Patrick’s Day Stickers, Stickers in Instagram’s Stories for Japan and Korea, Stickers for Days of the Week, and many others. On August 31, Instagram announced access to stories features on the mobile web.
2018: To comply with the GDPR regulations regarding data portability, Instagram introduced the ability for users to download an archive of their user data in April 2018. IGTV launched on June 20, 2018, as a standalone video application. On September 24, 2018, Krieger and Systrom announced in a statement they would be stepping down. On October 1, 2018, it was announced that Adam Mosseri would be the new head.
2019: Instagram also began to pilot the removal of the “Following” tab from the app, which had allowed users to view a feed of the likes and comments made by users they follow. The change was made official in October, with the head of product Vishal Shah stating that the feature was underused and that some users were “surprised” when they realized their activity was being surfaced in this manner. Already in October 2019, there were articles describing that introduced a limit on the number of posts visible to people, not logged-in in page scrolling mode (until then public profiles had been available to everyone).
News in 2020?
- In May 2020, They launched new “Guides” feature that enables users to engage with wellness-focused creators to take part in mental health discussions.
- In August 2020, Instagram rolls out Reels, a short-form video feature designed to compete against TikTok
- Instagram also added suggested posts in August 2020.
- In April 2020, They released Instagram’s Messaging or simply “Messaging” for personal desktops.
What’s News in 2019?
- Instagram is more likely to focus on engagement moves, from likes to stickers to engaging Instagrammers’ followers through Instagram’s Stories instead of regular feed posts.
- In 2019, a key trend expected to proliferate the growth of Instagram’s user base is influencers to get more authenticity of brands and users.
- Nano-influencers are expected to support high revenue growth in 2019.1
News in 2018?
- On January 23, the company introduced GIF Stickers that can be added to any photo or video in Instagrammers’ stories.
- On February 1, Instagram introduced Type Mode in stories, where Instagrammers can write creative text in various styles and use different backgrounds.
- On March 21, the company introduced Hashtag and Profile Links in Bio, where Instagrammers can add # or @ in their bio, and the text converts into links that lead to another profile or hashtag page.
- On April 10, Instagram introduced the Focus feature to a person’s stay in order to focus on a person’s face, and then the background softly blurs.
- On April 15, Instagram introduced @design from the design team to support and explore various craft designs around the world.
- On May 10, They introduced the Emoji Slider sticker.
- On May 22, Instagram introduced the Mute feature, which allows a personalized feed and lets Instagrammers hide posts in their feed from certain accounts without unfollowing them.
- On June 7, Instagram introduced @mention sharing which lets Instagrammers mention someone in their story, and the person mentioned receives a notification in their direct message thread.
- On June 12, Instagram attached a shopping module to its Instagrams Stories features.
- On June 20, They launched IGTV, which is a new app for watching vertical, long-form videos.
- On June 26, They introduced a new explore, video chat, and many more on Instagram direct.
- On June 28, Instagram introduced music in stories, which is a soundtrack that can be added to a story and fits the moment.
- On August 1, They announced the introduction of various new tools to manage time on Instagram and Facebook. The tool displays an activity dashboard, and daily reminder tasks, and offers new ways to limit notifications.
- On October 1, co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger announced Adam Mosseri as the new Head of Instagram.
- On October 9, They announced new tools to limit bullying and to spread kindness by introducing a new bullying comment filter to proactively hide and detect bullying comments from Explore, Feed, and Profile.
- On December 11, Instagram introduced the #InstaGiftGuide as a new way to shop.
Instagram’s Demographics
- 1.2 billion: The number of unique visitors that were active in October 2020, according to SEMrush.
- Around 80% of Instagrammers are outside the US.
- Globally, the age of Instagrams users is approximately 18–29 years of age.
- Female Internet users are comparatively higher than men with regard to the app.
- According to Instagram, the heart emoji was used over 14 billion times in December 2018.
- Top Three Hashtags in 2020 #Love, #Instagood, and # fashion
- Similarly, the happiest geotagged location in the world is registered to be Disneyland Tokyo, and the highest use of? in the caption.
- In December 2018, They registered the highest use of hashtags, including the community of #fortnite, fandom community of BTS #btsarmy, dance movement of #inmyfeelingschallenge, and advocacy hashtags of #metoo used over 1.5 Million times, #timesup used 597K, #marchforourlives used over 562K.
Instagram Usage Statistics
- Cristiano Ronaldo has the highest number of followers on Instagram, with 387 Million followers.
- In addition, Selena Gomez has approximately 287 Million followers globally.
- To date, Beyonce holds the most-liked photo record with her pregnancy announcement, which garnered over 11 Million likes.
- Keyword “Instagram” is Google searched approximately 16,600,000 times per month.
Instagram’s Business Statistics
- Of overall Instagram’s user accounts globally, around 90% of users follow a business, and approximately 200 Million Instagrammers actively profile multiple business profiles every day.
- When users see ads for a brand on Instagram, 50% get more interested in it.
- In March 2017, Instagram registered over 2 Million monthly active advertisers, and this number has increased from 1 million the previous year.
- Around 70% of users discover new products when they log in
- One-Third of the most viewed stories are from the business accounts
- Approximately 150 Mn people have a conversation with a business account every month
- As of August 2019, more than 90 Mn accounts now tap to reveal tags in shopping posts every month.
Instagram Content Statistics
- An average of 10.7% of Instagrammers’ posts have at least one hashtag to increase engagement in the year 2020.
- Among all the food items, Pizza is the most widely Instagrammed food.
- The most popular filters used are Clarendon, Gingham, and Juno/Lark.
- In 2020, in a minute on the Internet, there are 694,444 scrolls
- As of March 2019, the time spent watching videos increased by 80%
- As of July 2019, approximately more than 100 Mn users watch or share live every day
Summary of the Instagram statistics for 2021
- There are 1.074 Bn Instagram users worldwide in 2021.
- The average post contains an average of 10.7 hashtags.
- More than 70% of the billion monthly active users on the app are under the age of 35.
- Users spend an average of 53 minutes per day on Instagram.
- Instagram can generate over 4 x more interactions compared to Facebook.
- 71% of US businesses use Instagram.
- Instagram helps 80% of Instagram’s users decide to buy a product or service.
- 1,074 photos are uploaded every second
- National Geographic is currently the most followed brand, with 202 million followers, followed by Nike, which has 193 million followers.
