Created in late 2010, with over hundreds of millions users, there is no doubt that Instagram will follow in the footsteps and be as impactful as its parent platform Facebook. Yet, Instagram isn’t just following Facebook’s path of success; brace yourself, Instagram is gaining advertisements. It wasn’t too long ago when Facebook did the same thing, users were being spammed with a plethora of ads and false sponsored stories from users. All of which, resulted in users neglecting Facebook in an attempt to save themselves from the ad crazy zone. Isn’t Instagram a slight bit worried that the same will happen to them?
After all it was only December of last year, when Insta changed their policy and stated that they were going to use photos from members in ads. There was an insane amount of backlash from users who threatened to stop utilizing Instagram all together, should such a thing happen. Interestingly enough, even after all of the backlash that stemmed those mere eight months ago, Instagram’s member count increased by fifty percent. Perhaps users don’t care as much as they once stated. Maybe that will be the same result will occur under this new ad scenario.
How is Instagram going to incorporate all of these ads, is the main question. Will the ads solely be on the discover page, or will it be weaved in the main news feed? Will companies try to by video spots on Instagram since the video limit is only 15 seconds, which is close enough to a TV commercial timing anyway? Whatever the answers are to these questions, will determine the fate of our beloved Instagram.