Instagram hits the 700 million user mark
What's the story
Facebook-owned photo and video sharing platform Instagram just reached the milestone of having 700 million monthly active users.
Over the last four months, over 100 million users joined the app.
This growth was fuelled by a lot of factors including outcomes of Facebook's battle against Snapchat for market dominance.
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A thrilling achievement for Instagram
"We're thrilled to announce that our community has grown to more than 700 million Instagrammers. And the last 100 million of you joined faster than ever," the company wrote in a blog post.
Factors
Factors which contributed to Instagram's rapid growth
Among other factors, Instagram's ability to better connect people and its easy sign up mechanism contributed to the rapid growth.
Other factors include the success of Snapchat-like Instagram Stories, born directly out of Facebook's competition with Snapchat.
While Stories failed to kick off in other platforms like Messenger and WhatsApp, it found resounding response on Instagram with over 200 million users using Instagram stories.
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Ease of connection
"We have made it even easier for people across the globe to join the Instagram community, share their experiences and strengthen connections to their friends and passions," said Instagram.
Growth pattern
Instagram's growth is speeding up
Instagram was launched in October 2010.
Over a span of a little less than three years, it reached the 100 million users mark in February 2013.
However, in recent times, its user base growing rather rapidly - it took six months for Instagram to grow from 500 million to 600 million users, and another four months to reach 700 million users.
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Offering more ways of expression
"With new features like Stories, Live Video and disappearing messages in Direct, people now have more ways than ever to express themselves and feel closer to what matters to them," added Instagram.