Instagram has reached 3 billion monthly active users, Mark Zuckerberg announced, marking another milestone for one of the world’s most popular social networks. The last time Meta talked about the platform in numbers was in 2022, when it reached 2 billion users. Meta bought Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion, a move that raised questions about the company’s strategy as the app had started out as a photo-sharing app without significant revenue.
Since then, the app has grown exponentially, and some companies say it will account for more than half of Meta’s U.S. revenue this year. One of Instagram’s biggest strengths is its Reels videos, which it introduced in 2020, a market with strong rivals like TikTok and YouTube Shorts. TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance, has over 1 billion users worldwide who use the app every month.