Instagram’s Ad Revenue More than Doubled in 2018
As Facebook’s (FB) user growth is slowing, the company is increasingly dependent on its fastest-growing platform and crown jewel, Instagram, for growth.
Jan. 23 2019, Published 2:32 p.m. ET
Instagram’s popularity surged in 2018
As Facebook’s (FB) user growth is slowing, the company is increasingly dependent on its fastest-growing platform and crown jewel, Instagram, for growth.
The photo-sharing app’s founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, left last fall. The former’s loss was a big hit for Facebook, as he apparently had hands-on involvement in the app’s progress and had an eye for detail.
According to Instagram, it has over 1 billion monthly active users. The app gained popularity after the company cloned Snapchat’s popular features, including Stories. Instagram Stories alone has over 400 million users.
Instagram generated ad revenue of $9 billion in 2018
According to the latest report by eMarketer, Instagram had 713.9 million monthly active users in 2018. The research company says that it doesn’t include duplicates, spam, businesses, or nonhuman users in its estimates.
eMarketer expects Instagram’s growth to accelerate over the next few years. It estimates that this number will grow to 989.1 million by 2022.
The research company estimates that Instagram’s ad revenue more than doubled to $9 billion in 2018. Instagram could be Facebook’s main driver of growth in the coming years.
Facebook stock has rallied over 20% since Christmas Eve after a decline that saw the company’s valuation nearly halved from peak to trough.
