Instagram reaches 700 million users

Instagram has hit the 700 million monthly active users landmark. The number has more than doubled in two years for the Mark Zuckerberg-owned company, which in mid-December 2016 had 600 million monthly active users worldwide.

"Thanks to new functionalities such as Instagram Stories, live videos and deletable messages, people now have more tools to express themselves and to be close to what interests them," wrote Instagram on its blog. The social media app was founded on 6th October 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, initially as a picture editing tool.

To begin with, it was only available on Apple's iOS operating system, and it is now available on other operating systems too. Instagram's breakthrough moment was its acquisition by Facebook on 9th April 2012, for a sum equivalent to approximately $1 billion in cash and shares. At the time Instagram had 80 million users.