Instagram has 300 million users, more than Twitter

SAN FRANCISCO — Instagram, the photo-sharing mobile application, now has more users than Twitter and will improve the quality of its service by deleting fake accounts.

Instagram, owned by social media giant Facebook, said on Wednesday that its monthly active users rose to 300 million this month from 200 million in March, not counting spammers. That exceeds the 284 million users Twitter said it had in October. Instagram will also begin to verify public figures as well as brands.

It has been about a year since Instagram started making advertising available. Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg has been focused on increasing the number of users of the company’s separate mobile apps, including Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, before implementing new ways to drive revenue.

“Instagram is adding an average of 360k new active users per day; for comparison, Twitter is adding 160k new users per day,” Mr Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Robert W Baird & Co, said in a tweet.

Twitter declined to comment on Instagram’s announcement. Twitter has recently been on a campaign to promote its prospects after several quarters of slowing user growth and questions about whether it can ever reach the scale of Facebook, which has about 1.3 billion members. Monthly active user count at Twitter rose 23 per cent in the third quarter, down from 24 per cent growth the prior quarter.

Instagram said that, on average, its users share 70 million photos per day. About 70 per cent of users are now outside the United States, an increase from 65 per cent in March. More than 30 billion photos have now been shared on the app.

When accounts for public figures on Instagram are verified, they will now receive a badge for authenticity, much like how they do on Twitter and Facebook.

“We’re committed to doing everything possible to keep Instagram free from the fake and spammy accounts that plague much of the Web,” said Mr Kevin Systrom, CEO of Instagram, in a statement. BLOOMBERG