Why Facebook's Instagram's 300 Million Active Monthly Users is Chasing Pinterest and Tumblr

“We’re proud to announce that there are now more than 300 million Instagrammers. Over the past four years, what began as two friends with a dream has grown into a global community that shares more than 70 million photos and videos each day”

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom commenting on the Instagram blog on Wednesday December 10^th 2014 on achieving 300 million Active Users per month

Facebook’s US$1 billion investment in Instagram back in 2012 is slowly showing signs of bearing fruit. I’m of course not making reference to Minister of Youth and Culture Lisa Hanna strutting her stuff on the beach while promoting Brand Jamaica on Instagram as stated in the article “Lisa Hanna Sets Off Social Media After Posting Photo In Beach Wear”, Published Sunday December 14, 2014 5:54 pm, The Jamaica Gleaner.

Now Instagram has announced on Wednesday December 10th 2014 that they’ve achieved 300 million active users monthly as stated in the article “Instagram user base breezes past 300m mark, overtakes Twitter”, published December 11, 2014 By Trevor Mogg, Digitaltrends.

Instagram announced the milestone in a blog post titled 300 Million: Sharing Real Moments that was a personal letter from Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom to Instagram followers that many seemed to like. In the blog post, he made light of the achievement while briefly mentioning the fact that Instagram had made significant changes to the Instagram experience that many might not have noticed:

1.         Continued deactivating spammy Instagram accounts

2.         Improved Search

3.         People Tab on the Explore page to make it easier to follow the Accounts of the Rich and the Famous

4.         Verified badges for celebrities, athletes and brands, so it'll be even easier to find them

So what’s the big deal about 300 million Active monthly users? It’s all about who they’ve beaten and have the potential to beat in the future and Ad revenue.

Instagram’s 300 Million Active Users – Why Teenagers and Millennials Selfie Trend is boosting Instagram

300 million Active users per month is a big deal, as it pushes them ahead of Twitter which has some 284 Million Active users per month.

According to statistical analyst Global Web Index, they'd seen a 36% increase in their Active Monthly User Base over the past six months, with a 64% increase in their overall membership as can be seen in my blog article entitled “Global Web Index indicates Snapchat is King - Why Tumblr and Pinterest on the rise as Facebook has higher engagement levels”.

Both significantly more than Twitter! It becomes glaringly obvious when you examine the usage patterns of Instagram under the statistical microscope.

Selfies might be what’s making Instagram so hot as noted in the article “Instagram Tops 300 Million Monthly Users”, Published Monday December 15, 2014, The Jamaica Gleaner:

1.      65% of Instagram's users are outside the US

2.      70 million photos shared daily, increasing from the 60 million daily in 2013

3.      30 billion photos shared since Instagram's inception

Add to that the stats provided by Research firm eMarketer:

1.      16.7% of US smartphone users use Instagram

2.      52.5 million of US smartphone users use Instagram

3.      80% between the ages of 12 and 34

Instagram also released a Hyperlapse App in September 2014 that does great long-exposure videos, great for Social Sciences students studying Humans over long time frames or naturalists wanting to make their own YouTube Nature Films as predicted in my blog article entitled “Instagram's Hyperlapse App films Time-Lapse Videos – Apple iPhone Amateur Wildlife Photographers filming Nature gets a boost”. 

Facebook now has 1.35 Billion Active Monthly Users – Huge Boost to their advertising revenue

As for Facebook, they're smiling all the way to the bank, as this Active monthly users milestone means more advertising revenue, especially when you consider that they have also purchased over WhatsApp for US$19 billion earlier in February 2014 as noted in my blog article entitled “Facebook acquires WhatsApp for US$19 Billion - CEO Jan Koum Revelry will fade once faced with BBM and Google+, Guardians of the Galaxy of Mobile Social Networks”.

Their Active monthly user totals appear as follows:

1.      500 million for Facebook Messenger

2.      600 million for WhatsApp

3.      300 million for Instagram

4.      1.35 billion users across all these Social Media Platforms

So does this mean Twitter is beaten? Far from it; Twitter is STILL the king of News and is the main way I get my News-fix, with Facebook as my Groupie hangout spot online as noted in my blog article entitled “Introducing Facebook Groups App – How to connect to your Facebook Groups on your Smartphone or Tablet”.

It’ll be interesting to see if Instagram can surpass Pinterest and Tumblr, currently the No. 1 and No. 2 in terms of Active monthly user growth as well as overall membership growth based on the stats of statistical analyst Global Web Index.

Now that would be a real milestone worth celebrating!