Instagram now has 700 mn monthly users, adds 100 mn in just 4 months

We’ve 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. 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.

That’s a good news, especially for Facebook. Instagram goes head to head with Snapchat, which recently went public and is popular among the young crowd.

Instagram has been rolling out new features to become an alternative to Snapchat. Last year, Instagram introduced Stories, the self-destructing-message structure – one of Snapchat’s original features. Earlier this year made sure that on  Direct, the option to share disappearing videos and images got a lot more prominent with a new Blue coloured camera symbol.

Instagram Stories was introduced last year, but already has 200 million users a day. This surely has helped Instagram to beat Snapchat in the competition. In one its recent public filings, Snapchat attributed “relatively flat” growth to “increased competition”. Snapchat currently has over 161 million daily active users.

There’s no doubt that when it comes to growth, Instagram is making massive gains. It won’t be surprising if this photo-sharing app soon sports a billion users, just like Facebook, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.