Instagram now has 500 million subscribers, 300 million average daily users

One of the first 'must-have' social-media apps now has 500 million subscribers. Photo and video sharing site Instagram announced today that of the half a billion people who have opened an Instagram account, 300 million use the service every single day. That is an amazing run from the one million iPhone users that Instagram announced that it had five and a half years ago. That was before Instagram finally hit the Google Play Store in April of 2012. Instagram has become a global phenomenon with 80% of its users living outside of the U.S.

The app was the first to be involved in a billion dollar transaction when Facebook offered a combination of stock and cash in exchange for Instagram back in April, 2012. By the time the transaction closed, the actual value of the deal fell under the billion dollar mark.

The app recently made some big changes, starting with its logo. The well-known skeuomorphic looking camera has been replaced by a modern looking simplified camera design. In addition, the Instagram UI was updated and the app's blue bars were exchanged for a cleaner black and white look. Prior to that, videos on the site were lengthened from 15-seconds to 60-seconds.

Among the most controversial change is the one that replaces the post found on the top of an Instagram user's timeline. Instead of finding the most recent message there, an algorithm decides which posts are more relevant to each subscriber and places those posts on the top of the timeline. This was rolled out after Instagram announced that users were missing 70% of their feeds.


source: Instagram via AndroidCentral