Instagram now has 600mn monthly active users

Instagram, which for a very long time was being known as Snapchat-clone is now moving ahead of Snapchat in terms of userbase. Can we say, that this was expected considering the last two updates were not inspired by Snapchat? The company feels so too.

The photo-sharing platform announced that it has 600 million monthly active users (MAU), with the last 100 million users being added in the past six months. And the company is giving the credit to its latest updated features.

"Today we’re proud to announce our community has grown to more than 600 million Instagrammers. And the last 100 million of you joined in just the past six months," Instagram said in a blog post.

“A lot has changed this year, but the Instagram community and the diversity of expression it provides have remained consistent. And you now have more ways to share than ever before with Instagram Stories, live video and disappearing photos and videos in Direct. Additionally, with updated safety tools that give you more control over comments and other parts of your experience, we’re working to make Instagram safer than ever for connection and self-expression,” the company further continued.

Instagram added a feature, earlier this month, that allows users save posts for later viewing. Also, Instagram started rolling out Live videos on Stories to all users in the US.

Instagram in September updated its safety tools by allowing users to control the comments posted on their pictures and videos to combat increasing cases of online trolling.

According to research firm eMarketer, Facebook-owned Instagram is on track to generate $1.5 billion in advertising revenue this year.

This means, we can expect more exciting updates in future.