Instagram now has 300 million users surpassing Twitter while brands and celebs will get verified badges
Instagram now has more than 300m users, having added 100m new users in the last nine months the photo-sharing site has revealed.
The figure means the Facebook-owned site surpasses fellow social network Twitter, which counted 284m users at the end of October.
It’s a significant step for the four-year-old business which counted 100m users two years ago and 200m in March this year.
More than 70m photos are shared every day, said Instagram boss Kevin Systrom in a blog post.
Systrom also announced the launch of "verified" badges for celebrities, athletes, and brands, to reassure users they are the real deal and as well as a crackdown on spam accounts. It will work in a similar way to Twitter’s blue tick account verification.
Finally, as more people join, keeping Instagram authentic is critical — it’s a place where real people share real moments. We’re committed to doing everything possible to keep Instagram free from the fake and spammy accounts that plague much of the web, and that’s why we’re finishing up some important work that began earlier this year.
We’ve been deactivating spammy accounts from Instagram on an ongoing basis to improve your experience. As part of this effort, we will be deleting these accounts forever, so they will no longer be included in follower counts. This means that some of you will see a change in your follower count.