There are now 800 million Instagram users and 2 million Advertisers!

As of this morning, Instagram has more than 800 million users, up by more than 100 million users since April this year, and more than 2 million advertisers!

Most people would have been under the impression that once Instagram grew beyond its modest proportions, its growth would slow down. Although that does not seem to be the case. Social Samosa reported Instagram crossing the threshold of 700 million users towards the end of April this year, and as September inches towards an end, we are looking at more than 800 million Instagram users.

Confirmed by Facebook’s Vice President of Global Marketing Solutions, Carolyn Everson at an event in New York, as reported by CNBC.

The 800 million Instagram users number belongs to Monthly Active Users, whereas the Daily Active Users number peaked at 500 million as per Instagram.

On the Business and advertising front, Instagram is doing particularly well with more than 2 million advertisers reported to be a part of their platform, twice than the 1 million advertisers figure previously reported earlier this year in March.

50% of Businesses associated with Instagram have created an Instagram Story in the past month as per Instagram. The number has the potential to rise tremendously with the arrival of Facebook’s immersive Canvas Ads format on Instagram.

A look at Instagram's growth over the years, until their previous milestone of 700 million users. Source

Instagram’s appeal has never been higher among their core target audience as users under the age of 25 spend an average amount of 32 minutes per day on the platform.

Video on Instagram is also being consumed 80% higher than the previous year, whereas videos produced on. Instagram has witnessed a 4x growth from last year. Most of this can be attributed to SMBs according to Daniel Etherington from TechCrunch.

Interestingly for businesses on Instagram, over 180 million Instagrammers visited a website, got directions, called, emailed or direct messaged to learn about a business last month. This indicates that businesses’ association with Instagram has been sufficiently fruitful and can continue to be so.

The world’s largest photo sharing platform has no plans of giving up their numero uno status, as they are now moving closer to the big number, the billion, and things look good.

Instagram’s chief rival on the other hand has been struggling despite attempting to innovate with fresh new updates and features, amassing a paltry 173 million users.

Instagram’s more direct rival and rip off, Instagram Stories too leaves Snapchat behind by several million users, with more than 250 million users, which once again is bad news for Evan Spiegel.