Source: http://blog.instagram.com/post/148348940287/160802-stories
Instagram users aged under 25 spend more than 30 minutes on this photo-sharing app daily. Older users, on the other hand, use the app for 25 minutes a day.
The company revealed the latest stats as Instagram Stories turns one. The stats show that more and more young users spend three percent of their hours using it. The numbers take aim at the claims of Snapchat during its IPO filing.
By revealing these figures, Instagram wants to show off its success through the Stories feature. It’s a functionality that the photo-sharing app accused of stealing from the messaging platform, Snapchat.
With Stories, more and more people are using the app. Their amount of time spent on Instagram increased after launching the feature. Even though the said app stole several features from Snapchat, Stories was the most popular.
250 Million Daily Users
Snapchat’s daily users are 166 million while Instagram Stories has 250 million. That said, after a year of launching, it gained 84 million more users than its rival.
Instagram admitted to taking up the feature from Snapchat. In fact, Kevin Systrom, Instagram co-founder, stated that “Snapchat deserved the credit for some of these features.”
It’s not surprising though as it’s how the industry works. According to Kevin Weil, Instagram head of product, “It’s a format and it’s going to be adopted widely across multiple platforms.”
Unfortunately, the recent growth of Instagram caused a decline in Snapchat’s growth. Its monthly active user rate fell from 17.2 percent to 5 percent. Its share price also dropped from $17 to $13.
Instagram, on the other hand, saw a huge success with businesses on the platform because of Stories. In a released report, the company stated that more than 50 percent of brands published on Stories.
Furthermore, in every five Stories issued by a business, one of them gets a DM reply, which is another advertising opportunity.
Snapchat, however, doesn’t want to accept defeat. To overtake its rival, Snap, its parent company, reported developing a drone.
Some reports suggest that it might acquire Zero Zero Robotics, which is a Chinese drone maker. The deal might be between $150 million and $200 million. Neither of the two companies commented on the rumors.
What is Zero Zero Robotics?
It’s the same company that developed the Hover Camera Passport Drone. This drone utilizes facial recognition in taking selfies of users. What sets it apart from others is that it takes selfies from the air.
With Hover Camera, you can snap a family vacation photo in an aerial view or capture a shot from a basketball rim during a game, etc.
This technology might help Snapchat users in taking their photos or videos from above. In recent years, the company changed its focus and became a camera tech company, rather than just a social media network.
As it continues to research and create innovative technology, it hired 50 hardware engineers and designers. It’s working on facial recognition technology, wearable cameras, and several others.
