Instagram hits 600 million users as its growth speeds up

Emulating Snapchat may have finally paid off for Facebook-owned image-centric platform Instagram as it has declared that it has over 600 million users.

Emulating Snapchat may have finally paid off for Facebook-owned image-centric platform Instagram as it has declared that it has over 600 million users.

Emulating Snapchat may have finally paid off for Facebook-owned image-centric platform Instagram as it has declared that it has over 600 million users.

The number assumes significance as the platform seems to have acquired the last 100 million in the last six months compared to the period when it acquired 500 million. The company had earlier said that it had taken 9 months to add 100 million users to reach the 500 million mark.

However, it is not clear what is generating momentum for the company. Experts claimed that Instagram maybe working as a platform for endorsements and advertisements. With its last update, the company has noted that 300 million users was on the app daily.

"Most of the 600 million total are likely very active, then, but there's a chance that some of its new users only occasionally check things out," an industry expert said, adding, that "emulating Snapchat features and Twitter's decision to close Vine may also have helped."

Meanwhile, this means that nearly all Facebook-owned companies are on high growth rates with Facebook having 1.79 billion monthly active users as of the third quarter of 2016. In the third quarter of 2012, the number of active Facebook users had surpassed 1 billion. Active users are those which have logged in to Facebook during the last 30 days.

WhatsApp, another instant messaging service from the company, has over 1 billion users. In retrospect other social media platforms like Twitter and Snapchat have 317 million users and 150 millers users globally.