Instagram Adds 100 Million Users in 6 Months, Now at 600 Million

By Shubhomita Bose

Instagram has done it again.
The Facebook-owned company has grown to more than 600 million users, adding its latest 100 million users in just the past six months. That’s Instagram’s fastest growth rate ever.
Instagram Gains an Edge Over SnapchatWhat makes this milestone even more special is that it comes at a time when rival Snapchat has been growing more popular.
To attract users, Snapchat has introduced a slew of new features such as Memories and groupchat. Meanwhile Instagram has rolled out updates to stay ahead of competition. Earlier this year, the company launched Stories, a feature that makes the app less like the old Instagram and more like Snapchat.
More recently, Instagram unveiled its live video feature that allows users to broadcast videos to friends and family in real-time. Once the live stream ends, the live video disappears from the app. Parallels with Snapchat were drawn again when Instagram announced the feature.
Instagram’s head of product Kevin Weil hasn’t beaten around the bush on the subject of originality. “Sometimes good ideas are good ideas,” he told Variety when asked about the similarity between Instagram’s private photo sharing and Snapchat. “It’s a feature that makes sense to people.”
What The High Number of Instagram Users Means for Your Small BusinessInstagram’s ever-growing user base makes it a great marketing tool for small businesses. Surprisingly, many businesses still don’t know how to make the most of this popular platform.
It’s worth noting that only 50 percent of Fortune 500 companies have adopted Instagram.
Clearly, businesses are yet to leverage the full potential of the photo-sharing app. If done right, Instagram can be a great tool to engage audience.
To unleash its potential, you must post relevant content regularly, focus on eye-catching images and create a consistent style. Check out this post for more tips.

Source:​https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/12/number-of-instagram-users-december-2016.html