The photo-sharing app has to translate its growth into profit, so get ready to see some ads in the next year.
Instagram is unstoppable. The photo-sharing app added 20 million users over the last two and a half months, growing from 130 million to 150 million monthly active budding photographers since introducing video.
For comparison, Twitter had 200 million active users as of March. Vine, Instagram's main competitor, has 40 million registered users. Instagram is clearly killing it.
So it comes as no surprise that Facebook is preparing to turn the popularity of its subsidiary into cold hard cash. Emily White, Instagram's director of business operations, joined the company in March to take the app to the next level. And that next level will include ads, at least that's what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he envisions during social network's second-quarter earnings conference call.
"We expect that over time we're going to generate a lot of profit from [Instagram], probably through advertising," Zuckerberg said.
Poised to sell
White told the Wall Street Journal that she expects Instagram to be poised to sell ads sometime next year. There's a lot of work to be done before that happens. The company is building relationships with brands that are already using Instagram to promote themselves for free. Those brands will have to be convinced that paying for ads is more effective than simply posting amazing photos. Instagram also needs a sales team.
According to the WSJ, White is considering the app's Discover and Search sections as definite ad possibilities. White also said that brands are interested in click-through links from their Instagram photos to their product pages, but that is a pie-in-the-sky idea for now.
White's biggest challenge in prepping Instagram for ads is the app's 150 million users. Instagram has been ad-free for so long that any major change could send those users into the waiting arms of another photo-sharing app.
If Instagram is able to avoid Facebook's recent missteps with policy changes--which White has committed to, she told the WSJ--then perhaps an ad-supported Instagram might not be that terrible.
In the third and final episode of our 3-part CMO50 video series exploring modern marketing and why it’s become a matter of trust, we’re delighted to be joined by Telstra’s former CMO and now digital services and sales executive, Jeremy Nicholas, and Adobe VP Marketing Asia-Pacific and Japan, Duncan Egan.
Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.
Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?
As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.
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