How Instagram has grown since Facebook announced its intent to buy the company

Instagram has gained more than 50 million new users in the four and a half months since Facebook announced its plans to acquire the mobile photo-sharing network. Although a Federal Trade Commission investigation delayed the deal from closing sooner, the commission voted earlier this week to end its review and allow the acquisition to proceed. Facebook hasn't announced that the deal has officially closed, but CEO Mark Zuckerberg supposedly had a celebratory sushi dinner with co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger last night. Now, Facebook is getting an even stronger addition to its mobile app lineup with Instagram quickly gaining new users and increasing engagement, while also expanding its feature set. In late July, Instagram announced that it had surpassed 80 million users and nearly four billion photos shared. AppData indicates that the app has 28 million monthly active Facebook-connected users and 10 million daily Facebook-connected users. That's more than 20 million MAU and 8 million DAU since the social network announced its intent to buy Instagram. It also shows that larger percentage of Instagram users are connecting with Facebook and returning monthly. About 30 percent now versus 21 percent in April. See a breakdown of this over time at the end of this article. Much of Instagram's growth has likely come among Android users. Instagram released its first Android app less than a week before the Facebook deal was announced. The acquisition also raised the profile of the photo-sharing app, which led to a spike in downloads and monthly active Facebook-connected users. Monthly growth has steadied since June, though daily growth has accelerated since July, according to AppData. It was on June 25 that Instagram released an iOS update that made the app faster and allowed users to share more activity to Facebook, which seems to have resulted in users returning more frequently. Instagram has also been increasing its web presence. In June, it expanded the functionality of its website to allow users to post comments and like photos. Previously, the site allowed users to manage their account settings and view a permalink of a photo, but not take any actions or browse user profiles.There have also been hints that full Instagram profiles could be coming to the web soon. ComScore reported Thursday that Instagram experienced a 38 percent traffic gain between June and July, with unique visitors rising from 16.5 million to 22.7 million. Instagram was the top gaining web property in terms of percent change in unique visitors during that period. Total Instagram users versus Facebook-connected users over time Instagram announces 5 million users on June 13, 2011 766,070 million monthly active Facebook users, according to AppData ~15 percent of Instagram users connected with Facebook Instagram announces 15 million users on Dec. 7, 2011 2.2 million monthly active Facebook users, according to AppData ~15 percent of Instagram users connected with Facebook Instagram announces 16 million users on Feb. 25 5 million monthly active Facebook users, according to AppData ~31 percent of Instagram users connected with Facebook The Next Web estimates 25 million Instagram users on March 3 5.3 million monthly active Facebook users, according to AppData ~21 percent of Instagram users connected with Facebook Instagram announces 30 million users on April 3 6.5 million monthly active Facebook users, according to AppData ~22 percent of Instagram users connected with Facebook ZDNet estimates 50 million Instagram users on May 1 16 million monthly active Facebook users, according to AppData ~32 percent of Instagram users connected with Facebook Instagram announces 80 million users on July 26 24.3 million monthly active Facebook users, according to AppData ~30 percent of Instagram users connected with Facebook

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How Instagram has grown since Facebook announced its intent to buy the company

Brittany Darwell

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