Adweek: After a Year, Instagram Stories Is Fueling the App’s Rapid Growth

It seems like just yesterday Instagram introduced its Stories feature, but today the social network is celebrating its one year anniversary. According to a recent Adweek article, the Snapchat clone has helped Instagram grow rapidly this year by adding 50 million daily users in just two months to reach 250 million daily users this June. After the first quarter of the year, Snapchat reported only having 166 million.

While many criticized Instagram for copying the feature from the Snapchat platform, leaders of the brand framed the update as a way for users to not only share highlights of their lives. Instagram co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom explained, “But what about all the moments that you don’t want to hang up in the art gallery, that aren’t the highlights of your life, that you don’t necessarily need to be judged on? It’s simply a status update.”

Instagram reported that users are spending more time on the app due to the addition of Instagram Stories. Users older than 25 use the app more than 24 minutes per day, while users under the age of 25 are using the app more than 32 minutes per day.

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