A pivot for millions of envy-inducing snaps, Instagram has emerged as the titan of social media. The unprecedented growth is translating in the valuation of Instagram as well. With its box full assortment of memes, gifs, this photo-sharing platform would have celebrated its rococo worth more than $100 billion, if it were a stand-alone company.
Instagram recently reached a billion users a month – A considerably vast user-base. This has a direct impact on the growing valuation of Instagram, as well as on Facebook. The photo-sharing platform which was acquired by Facebook in 2012 for $1 billion, now returns a 100-fold return for the app as the valuation hovering $100 billion.
Reportedly, Instagram is most likely to encompass about 16% of Facebook’s revenue over the next year, which is a considerable increase from 10.6% last year.
Introducing a new add-on of Instagram television (IGTV) last week, Instagram is sure to boost up the growth scope. Additionally, it can be conceived for now that the main contributors to Instagram’s 2018 revenue growth are from its newsfeed ads as the TV platform is in its initial phase.
A few days back, Pew Research Center survey found that there’s been a decline in the number of users from 71% in 2014-2015 to 51% as of now. Reportedly, in this year, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat — are mostly favoured by the vast majority of teens, surprisingly, surpassing Facebook.
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jitendra Waral claims that Instagram is making hits with new users, faster than Facebook. With predictions as high as garnering 2 billion users within the next five years, Instagram’s audience, being more younger than its parent company, has been a nerve-centre for advertisers too. In addition, apart from the decline of Facebook fever in the US, Instagram still continues to grow.
Bells And Whistles Along With Soaring Valuation of Instagram
As Instagram is growing speed-ball, it also is adding new features and tools to continue to attract potential users.
On Tuesday, the platform trotted out its video content and group video chat feature, in addition to augmented reality stickers.
If this enticing roll-out wasn’t enough, Instagram unveiled new features which are here to help establish a connection between users and companies, in order to enlist them for goods and services. Not only, this tool will enable company’s visibility, but at the same time goose business profiles. As per company sources, it’s said that Instagram with 200 million active Instagram users visiting one business profile each day, about 150 million users have business altercations on a monthly basis.
The free features will enable a “better” way for businesses to manage their messages and operations. The messages are routed to the main Direct Inbox, rather than the pending folder.
Instagram – The Do-Gooder
“Without Instagram, Facebook is a completely different picture,” – Jason Kint, chief executive officer of Digital Content Next.
In the year 2012, Instagram’s founder Kevin Systrom gave a nod to sell his company to Mark Zuckerberg for $1 billion of cash and stock. While sealing the deal, Instagram had 30 million users. Instagram has been relying on Facebook for its success since then, but now the tables might turn – Facebook may depend on Instagram for its longevity.
Given the fact that, Instagram’s audience is younger than Facebook’s, this acts as a much-needed advantage from a marketer’s perspective. And unlike Facebook, which has witnessed its first decline in North America in a span of the recent year gone, Instagram is still growing in its home market.
It certainly won’t be absolutely unrealistic to say that $200 billion of Facebook’s $435 billion market cap is due to Instagram’s appeal over the younger demographic who aren’t smitten by Facebook. There might come a time, wherein Facebook will stop growing internationally, while Instagram establishes itself as too important to the company’s prospects.
