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Instagram could hit one billion users this year

Instagram could hit one billion users this year

Facebook-owned picture sharing service Instagram could pass the mystical one billion user milestone this year.

The Motley Fool reports that those numbers could help double revenues to a massive $9 billion. Facebook does not disclose Instagram revenues, so this is a guesstimate, but either way this represents a colossal return on Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of the service in 2012.

The platform also hosts some two million active advertisers which, while somewhat short of Facebook’s five million, is double the number it had last year.

Bargain

“Facebook's billion-dollar acquisition of Instagram in 2012 seemed utterly insane at the time. The photo/video sharing service had just a handful of employees back then and less than 30 million registered users,” the site writes.

“In the years since, Facebook has executed incredibly well with growing Instagram, which is well on its way to becoming Facebook's fourth billion-user platform, alongside Facebook, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Instagram hit 800 million monthly active users (MAUs) in September, meaning it will likely announce 900 million MAUs any day now based on its trajectory.

“With the benefit of hindsight, the Instagram acquisition has turned out to be a blockbuster deal. Unlike other services that Facebook arguably overpaid for, Instagram has already more than made up for its purchase price. For once, Snap is copying Instagram.”

Further forecasts have predicted 1.4 billion users for the service by 2022, bringing in $22 billion worth of sales.

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