Instagram

Instagram is a company developer of the same name service-social network of photographic images.

Development debut on October 6, 2010.

Internet audience

2023: Instagram downloads outnumber TikTok

In 2023, there were signs that TikTok's growth had begun to stabilize for the first time since it launched in 2016, as the social media app's explosive growth began to slow.

2022: Active audience of 1.24 billion people

2020: In the top 50 largest Internet sites in the world

2018: Percentage of the population using Instagram in European countries

2013: App audience - 100 million users

Performance indicators

In 2017, Instagram's share of Facebook's revenue was only 10.6%. In 2018, it will grow to 16% (eMarketer forecast for June 2018). So far, revenue growth is driven by advertising in the news feed. Video is Instagram's most promising source of revenue after the news feed.

Business in Russia

2024

Russia adopted a law banning advertising on Instagram

On July 25, 2024, the State Duma of Russia adopted in the first reading a bill prohibiting advertising on the social network Instagram (owned by Meta, recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation). This decision is part of a broader initiative to restrict advertising activities in social networks blocked in Russia. Read more here

Instagram audience in Russia has decreased by 5.7 times since the blocking of the service

The Russian audience of Instagram (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia) after blocking the social network decreased six times. This was announced on March 18, 2024 by Forbes with reference to a study by Mediascope. Read more here.

2023

Named Russian bloggers with the highest advertising revenues on Instagram

In 2023, Russian advertisers spent more than 900 million rubles to promote goods and services on the Instagram social network (owned by Meta, which was recognized as extremist and banned in Russia). This was reported on March 12, 2024 by Vedomosti with reference to Roskomnadzor, which is the operator of the Unified Register of Internet Advertising (ERIR).

The bloggers who earned the most from Instagram ads were named

Most of all in the social network for the year from Russian bloggers earned:

• singer Klava Coca - 21.2 million rubles;
• stylist Karina Nigay - 18.2 million rubles;
• actress Anna Khilkevich - 9.9 million rubles;
• singer Karina Cross - 8.6 million rubles;
• singer Dava - 4.7 million rubles.

In general, the income of bloggers in the social network for the year increased by 35%. The entire influence marketing market grew by 90% and amounted to 30 billion rubles. The most common bloggers advertise brands of clothing and accessories - this market segment occupies 17% of all integrations. 15% of integrations are food advertising, a slightly smaller share is occupied by advertising for ecosystem services (12.9%) and the beauty segment (12.2%). In addition, advertising of equipment is in demand, it is 8.2% of the number of all integrations.^[1]

Instagram audience in Russia fell 5 times

In February 2023, on average, at least once a day, 6% of Russians over 12 years old entered the Instagram social network (owned by Meta, which was recognized as extremist and banned in Russia), which is 5 times less than in February 2022 (then the average daily coverage of the service was 31%). This is evidenced by Mediascope data, which was released in early March 2023. Read more here.

2022

State Duma deputies asked to unblock Instagram for the sake of small business

Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Small and Medium Entrepreneurship Alexander Demin appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office with a request to unblock Instagram (owned by Meta - recognized in Russia as an extremist organization). This became known on August 17, 2022.

The deputy in his letter referred to the statement of Meta Vice President Nick Clegg (Nicholas Clegg) that the company opposes Russophobia and imposes a ban on the publication of such posts on Facebook (recognized as an extremist organization and banned in Russia) and Instagram. Alexander Demin asked the Prosecutor General's Office to check this statement, and if there are no posts on Instagram calling for hatred against Russians, consider removing the blocking from the social network.

As part of the election campaign held on August 16, 2022, deputy Vladislav Davankov said that blocking Instagram led to the massive use of "dubious VPN services." In addition, the ban on the social network led to a drop in the income of small and medium-sized businesses, which sold their goods and services through the social network.

United Russia deputy, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Communications and IT Anton Gorelkin also spoke about unblocking Instagram earlier. In his opinion, such an outcome of events is possible if "the social network apologizes and changes policy."

According to Yaroslav Shitsle, head of the It & Ip Dispute Resolution section of the Rustam Kurmaev & Partners law firm, Alexander Demin's appeal itself does not create conditions for unblocking Instagram. To do this, the Prosecutor General's Office must go to court with a corresponding statement, in which it will indicate either the cessation of the distribution of illegal content or a change in Meta's policy, he explained to the publication.

At the same time, such options do not exclude the repeated appeal of the prosecutor's office to the court to ban the activities of the network, he said.

At the same time, even if the Prosecutor General's Office comes to the conclusion that Meta has eliminated violations regarding the dissemination of extremist information, "this will not solve all the company's problems in Russia," said Karen Ghazaryan, general director of the Institute for Internet Research. He pointed out that Meta in November 2021 was included in the list of companies that were supposed to open representative offices in Russia, as well as remove prohibited content. The company did not fulfill these requirements and most likely will not fulfill them in the current geopolitical situation^[2].

Ministry of Digital: Instagram, Ministry of Digital Development and Twitter lost 80% of Russian traffic after blocking

On June 16, 2022, the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation reported a sharp drop in Instagram, Facebook traffic (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) and Twitter after blocking these services. Read more here.

Recognition of Facebook and Instagram activities in Russia as extremist

On March 21, 2022, the Tverskoy Court of Moscow recognized the activities of the social networks Instagram and Facebook, owned by Meta Platforms Inc., as extremist and banned them in Russia.

Roskomnadzor and the Prosecutor General's Office asked to recognize Meta as an extremist organization. This was a response to the publication of an internal letter from the company, which reported that it was temporarily lifting the ban on residents of a number of countries from posting information containing calls for violence against Russian citizens, including military personnel, on its social networks. As Meta later explained, they allowed calls for violence against the military, but intended to restrict them towards ordinary Russian citizens.

According to the message of Roskomnadzor, the department will exclude the organization from the list of foreign persons operating on the Internet on the territory of the Russian Federation, and Instagram and Facebook from the register of social networks.^[3]

Speaking in court in the case of Meta's recognition as an extremist organization, the prosecutor said that the use of Facebook and Instagram by citizens and companies (both platforms are blocked in Russia) cannot be recognized as extremism. Russians will not be held accountable for using these platforms, "provided that user posts do not contain extremist appeals," he said.

The court filing also stated that the decision does not apply to activities also messenger WhatsApp owned by Meta "due to the lack of public dissemination functions."^[4]

Instagram ban in Russia over allowing calls to kill Russians

On March 14, 2022, Roskomnadzor began blocking Instagram in the Russian Federation. The social network is no longer available to some Russian users.

Earlier, Reuters, citing Meta's internal newsletter, reported that the company, in connection with the events in Ukraine on its platforms, temporarily lifted the ban on calls for violence against the Russian military, but not against the civilian population of Russia. At the same time, temporary permission to post such comments applies only to some countries.

Roskomnadzor demanded that Meta Corporation comment on this data, and the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation asked the court to recognize Meta Corporation as an extremist^[5].

Instagram blocking is observed in most providers and telecom operators in Moscow and regions of the country. Through VPN, the service is available.

According to Interfax, RKN entered the social network Instagram in the register of prohibited sites.

On March 11, Roskomnadzor provided Russian Instagram users with two days until March 14 to transfer their photo and video materials to other social networks.

The American service will be blocked in the country at the direction of the Prosecutor General's Office for allowing the publication of calls for violence against Russian citizens. Roskomnadzor invited Instagram users to move to VK and Odnoklassniki

The media reported that the ILV measures against Meta (Facebook and Instagram) will not apply to the WhatsApp messenger, since this service is a means of communication, and not a platform for posting prohibited content.

To download your data from Instagram, the user needs to go to a special page of the social network, where you can order an archive of your own publications and content. The archive request can be processed for up to 48 hours. The link to the archive will be available 4 days after its generation.

The head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, confirmed that the social network will be blocked by the ILV in the Russian Federation from March 14. Mosseri considers this decision erroneous. He said that blocking the social network will deprive 80 million Russian users of communication with each other and with the rest of the world. According to him, about 80% of users in Russia follow the foreign accounts of other Instagram Instagram clients^[6].

Later in March, Meta was recognized in Russia as an extremist organization and its social networks Facebook and Instagram were banned by the court.

Resolution of calls for violence against Russians

Facebook and Instagram will temporarily allow calls for violence against Russians and the Russian military, Reuters writes on March 10, 2022, citing internal emails to content moderators.

The platforms against the background of Russia's special operation in Ukraine temporarily changed the policy against inciting hatred. The electronic correspondence says that calls for violence against Russians are allowed when the posts clearly say "about the invasion of Ukraine."

The company also temporarily allows posts calling for the death of Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in countries such as,, Latvia,, Lithuania,, Estonia,, and Poland. Slovakia Hungary At the Romania Russia same time, Ukraine it is specified that posts should not contain instructions for a place or method.

On March 11, Meta announced that the new Facebook and Instagram policy, which allows negative statements against, among other things, Russian military personnel, will be applied only in Ukraine, allowing local users to "express anger" at the Russian troops.

2020

The earnings of Russian Instagram bloggers reached 5.8 billion rubles, 204 thousand advertising publications were posted - ADinBlog

In 2020, Russian bloggers earned about 5.77 billion rubles from advertising on Instagram, posting more than 204 thousand advertisements. This is stated in a study by ADinBlog, which offers search and analysis services for Instagram accounts for advertising.

During 2020, the service tracked 79.4 thousand pages - these are almost all accounts to which more than 15 thousand people are subscribed, assured in ADinBlog. During this time, 40% of bloggers posted at least one advertising post.

Most of all advertising budgets (79%) were earned by account owners with more than 500 thousand subscribers, while they posted 20% of all advertising posts. The largest group of bloggers with an audience of 15 thousand to 50 thousand subscribers accounted for 19% of all posts for which they earned 1.2% of the total budget. According to ADinBlog, micro-influencers with fewer than 15,000 subscribers account for 1% of total advertising.

According to the study, women bloggers earned five times more than men in absolute terms, and in terms of each account - twice.

It is also noted that more than 29% of bloggers who publish ads wind up likes in their accounts. About 800 rubles spent on advertising from Instagram bloggers in 2020 were overpaid to bloggers who wind up likes on their posts, according to ADinBlog.

To find out the prices of advertising, the authors of the study requested price lists from more than a thousand bloggers. Based on this data, ADinBlog has developed a pricing algorithm that takes into account the number of subscribers, the average number of likes per post, the number of subscribers from Russia and the percentage of bots in the account.

According to the service, by the end of 2020, there were about 1,480 Instagram bloggers in Russia with an audience of 1 million or more.^[7]

YouTube, Twitter and Instagram in Russia will be fined 20% of annual revenue for refusing to remove illegal content

On December 23, 2020, the State Duma in the third final reading adopted a law on large fines for social networks and other Internet services for refusing to remove illegal content. Read more here.

Instagram has more users in Russia than VKontakte

In October 2020, Instagram has more active users in Russia than VKontakte - 64 against 49 million people, respectively. This is stated in the annual study of the social media analysis system and SMIBrand Analytics. Experts assessed the popularity of social networks based on the number of new authors and their activity in each of the services. Read more here.

The government of the Voronezh region will spend 1.6 million rubles to cover its work on TikTok and Instagram

The government of the Voronezh region will spend 1.59 million rubles to cover its work on social networks. The corresponding tender is posted on the public procurement website at the end of October 2020. Read more here.

Top 10 Russians who earned the most on Instagram in a year

At the end of August 2020, Forbes magazine presented a rating of 15 Russian Instagram bloggers with the largest advertising revenues in this service. The first place in the list was taken by TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak, who earned $1.48 million in a year (from May 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020). Sobchak was the leader in advertising earnings on Instagram and in the previous ranking.

The updated rating of Russian Instagram bloggers who earn more than others is as follows:

• Ksenia Sobchak ($1.48 million);
• singer Polina Gagarina (870 thousand);
• TV presenter and blogger Ida Galich (850 thousand);
• TV host Ksenia Borodina ($770 thousand);
• blogger Alina Levda ($760 thousand);
• TV presenter Anastasia Ivleeva ($610 thousand);
• beauty blogger Valeria Chekalina ($610 thousand);
• TV presenter Regina Todorenko ($600 thousand);
• singer Elena Temnikova ($600 thousand);
• Russian mixed martial arts fighter, UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov ($600 thousand);
• singer Olga Buzova ($600 thousand);
• singer Egor Creed ($570 thousand);
• TV presenter Victoria Bonya ($540 thousand);
• e-sportsman, automotive blogger Alan Yenileev ($510 thousand);
• singer Rita Dakota ($480 thousand).

Instamams were initially the driving force behind Instagram. They gain the largest audience in the first years of their child's birth, at the same time advertisers are the most active in placing ads with them, "said Lev Grunin, founder of the WhoIsBlogger research company, who analyzed the accounts of Russian Instagram bloggers with more than two million subscribers at the request of the magazine.

Forbes journalists collected data on the cost of posting various types of publications from bloggers (with the help of bloggers themselves, experts and blogging agencies). The study took into account that bloggers post some of the posts by barter. The data were analyzed for the period from May 1, 2019 to April 30, 2020.^[8]

2018: Instagram's rise in popularity among Russian users

Brand Analytics revealed the main trends of social networks in 2018 in Russia:

Instagram'ization: The brightest trend is a multiple of Instagram's popularity among Russian users - the number of authors and content on this network has grown 3 times in a year and a half and continues to grow. According to AiTarget, the official reseller of Instagram and Facebook in Russia, according to the results of 2018, Russia ranks 6th in the world and 1st in Europe in terms of the number of active Instagram users. At the same time, in terms of the share of users from the number of residents, Russia is far from the first place.

History

2024: Listening through the microphone of all users

At the end of August 2024, it became known that the social network Instagram (owned by Meta, which is recognized as an extremist organization; activities on the territory of the Russian Federation are prohibited) listens through the microphone of each user. This is done for advertising purposes - to display the most relevant ads.

According to 404 Media, a tool called Active Listening is used to collect audio data. One of the main partners of the Cox Media Group (CMG) advertising services platform spoke about its use. The CMG-built Active Listening system relies on artificial intelligence to collect and analyze "real-time user intent data." Moreover, listening can be carried out not only through a smartphone, but also through a laptop or smart home speaker. Advertisers can combine this voice information with behavioral data to "target consumers in the marketplace."

Instagram listens through the microphone of all users

CMG's presentation said the company is partnering with Google, Amazon and Facebook (owned by Meta; prohibited in the Russian Federation). Amazon told 404 Media correspondents that the corporation's advertising division "has never worked with CMG on this program and does not plan to do so." Google, in turn, reported that they excluded CMG from the list of advertising partners.

As of early September 2024, there is no clarity on whether Active Listening software overhears users constantly or only at certain times when the microphone is activated, such as during a phone call. It is noted that if the collected audio recordings or behavior data indicate that the user is considering buying something, he will be promptly shown advertising this product.^[9]

2022

Instagram recommendation algorithms actively promote paedophile communities

Recommendation algorithms of the Instagram platform (owned by Meta, which is recognized as an extremist organization; activities on the territory of the Russian Federation are prohibited) contribute to the promotion of content for pedophiles. This is stated in a report dated June 7, 2023, prepared by The Wall Street Journal in conjunction with specialists from Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

As it turned out, numerous communities associated with content for pedophiles are operating on Instagram: you can find them using certain hashtags. Moreover, it is said that Instagram algorithms "actively promote" such groups and offer to purchase thematic photo and video materials (on third-party resources). For example, when researchers created a test account to view this kind of content, they were immediately advised to subscribe to accounts related to pedophilia.

In addition to problems with recommendation algorithms, the investigation also found that Instagram moderators often ignored or dismissed posts involving child abuse in one way or another.

In turn, Meta claims that in January 2023 alone, approximately 490,000 accounts were deleted on Instagram that violated child safety policies. In addition, over the course of two years (by the beginning of 2023), 27 networks for pedophiles were blocked. The company emphasizes that it has also removed thousands of hashtags related to child and adolescent abuse. Plus, the recommendation of content and accounts that could potentially be of interest to pedophiles is prohibited. Meta promised to create a special group to study the problems identified by the researchers.^[10]

Instagram star gets 11 years in prison for $300 million online fraud

On November 7, 2022, the US Department of Justice announced that Nigerian blogger Ramon Olorunwa Abbas was sentenced to 135 months (more than 11 years) in federal prison. He was found guilty of fraud on the Internet and money laundering on a large scale. Read more here.

In Spain, earned the verification of the majority for Instagram users

From November 2022 in Spain, you need to prove your majority using a document or video selfie. The minimum permissible age to use the social network is 14 years. And until the age of 18, the user will only be offered suitable content.

As a document confirming the majority, a DNI, passport or driver's license will be suitable. You can also record a small video, and a specially designed recognition system will determine your approximate age itself.

Fine of €405 million

Ireland imposed a fine on Instagram (recognized as an extremist organization and banned in Russia) for a record amount of 405 million euros after a 2-year investigation into the processing of data from children's accounts on the social network. This became known on September 6, 2022.

The Instagram investigation began in 2020 and involved teenage users between the ages of 13 and 17 who were allowed to manage business accounts, leading to the public distribution of the teen's phone number and email address.

In addition, Instagram has made some children's accounts public by default, which is against GDPR rules.

According to the representative Meta (recognized RUSSIAN FEDERATION as an extremist organization, its activities are prohibited in Russia), Instagram updated its settings more than a year ago and has since released updated features to ensure the safety of adolescents and their privacy. information

Instagram plans to appeal the fine. The social network does not agree with how the fine was calculated^[11] carefully reviews the decision^[12].

2021

Top 10 Instagram stars with the most expensive ad

In mid-January 2022, Hopper HQ, a British social media marketing analytics platform, presented a ranking of the highest paid celebrities on Instagram. The list was compiled on the basis of internal data, the prices of advertising agencies, as well as information on the income of celebrities in the public domain.

The first place was taken by the Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. One of the best football players of our time, as analysts note, is glad to advertise sports brands, 398 million users have subscribed to Ronaldo's account (by the beginning of January 2022). In second place is American wrestler and actor Dwayne Johnson, not only one of the most sought-after actors of our time, but also the highest paid blogger who writes about fitness and health, and to whose page 289 million users are subscribed. The top three leaders of the rating were closed by the American singer Ariana Grande, the performer of the hit Thank U Next with 289 million users. The page of the American model and the youngest billionaire in the world, Kylie Jenner, is followed by 237 million users. The top five also includes American performer Selena Gomez with her 233 million subscribers:

1. Cristiano Ronaldo (athlete) - for one advertising post receives $1.6 million (398 million are subscribed to his page);

2. Dwayne Johnson (actor) - for one advertising post receives $1.52 million (289 million are subscribed to his page);

3. Ariana Grande (singer) - for one advertising post receives $1.51 million (289 million are subscribed to her page);

4. Kylie Jenner (model) - for one advertising post receives $1.49 million (237 million are subscribed to her page);

5. Selena Gomez (singer) - for one advertising post receives $1.46 million (233 million are subscribed to her page);

6. Kim Kardashian (actress) - for one advertising post receives $1.41 million (278 million are subscribed to her page);

7. Lionel Messi (athlete) - for one advertising post receives $1.16 million (299 million are subscribed to his page);

8. Beyoncé Giselle (singer) - receives $1.14 million for one advertising post (231 million are subscribed to her page);

9. Justin Bieber (singer) - for one advertising post receives $1.11 million (215 million are subscribed to his page);

10. Kendall Jenner (model) - for one advertising post receives $1.05 million (212 million are subscribed to her page).^[13]

Facebook pays $1 billion to content authors on Facebook and Instagram

In mid-July 2021, Facebook announced payments of $1 billion to users who create content for this social network, as well as for Instagram. Rewards will be paid until 2022. Read more here.

Facebook and Instagram will open representative offices in Turkey

Facebook and Instagram will fulfill the requirement of the Turkish authorities to have a representative office in the country within the framework of the law on the regulation of social networks adopted in the republic. This was announced on January 18, the deputy head of the Turkish Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Omer Fatih Sayyan^[14].

"The day before the advertising ban is introduced, I want to give our citizens good news. Facebook and Instagram announced that they will open representative offices in our country in accordance with law 7253 (on the regulation of social networks), which entered into force on October 1, 2020, "Sputnik.Turkey.

We are talking about a bill adopted in July 2020 by the Turkish parliament, according to which large social networks with more than 1 million users are required to have representation in Turkey, the head of which must be its citizen. The number of Facebook and Instagram users in the republic exceeds 30 million people.

In November 2020, these social networks, as well as Twitter, YouTube, Periscope and TikTok, were fined 10 million Turkish lira (about $1.2 million) by the Turkish authorities for not opening representative offices on time.

In addition, according to the law, messages of an offensive and defamatory nature will be deleted without a court decision within two days. Also, companies undertake to store all the data of their Turkish customers in the country.

Blocking Trump's account after Washington riots

On January 6, 2021, Donald Trump's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts were blocked after riots began at the Capitol. Read more here.

2020

Lawsuit for illegal collection of patterns of persons 100 million users

Main article: How Facebook collects and sells user data

In August 2020, Facebook was charged with collecting and storing biometric data from over 100 million users on the Instagram social network.

According to data from a lawsuit filed against the company, Instagram has a tool that uses a facial recognition system and creates a "face template" that it then stores in its database. The social network is accused of automatically scanning the faces of people who may not even use Instagram in photos of users.

Under Illinois law, Facebook can be forced to pay between 1 and 5 thousand dollars for a violation, so the total amount that a company can be forced to pay can be up to $ 500 billion.

2019

The stars with the highest Instagram diary earnings

At this time, Ronaldo takes an average of 975 thousand dollars per post and earns more on Instagram than his salary as a football player (47 million versus 32).

The average price of a paid publication is growing rapidly

The average price of one paid Instagram post increased from $134 in 2014 to $1.642 in 2019.

The highest cost of an advertising post on YouTube. A post on this platform costs an average of $6,700 - four times more expensive than the nearest competing format (Instagram, $1,642 per post).

Co-financing of user content for IGTV

In November 2019, it was announced that Instagram was ready to take on some of the bloggers' expenses for the production of content for IGTV. But only if the content is not about politics, social issues and elections. This is reported by Bloomberg with reference to a letter that Instagram sent to its counterparties.

The restriction is related to the presidential election in 2020 - Instagram management fears that the social network can be used for political interference in the same way as Facebook. Such policies differ from Mark Zuckerberg's stance on political advertising. He recently stated that she is an important part of the political agenda and should remain on the platform. However, the case of IGTV is special: it is one thing to show political ads, and it is another thing to partially sponsor them, they parry on Instagram.

In addition to the above, IGTV also banned counterparties from uploading sponsorship content, promoting it on other platforms like YouTube, as well as holding lotteries and raffles.

Instagram partially pays for created content in exchange for a certain number of posts. The volume of the largest compensation reaches $250,000 for 20 posts. However, so far none of the most popular insta bloggers IGTV uses, Bloomberg notes.

Database of 20 million Instagram users put up for sale

In October 2019, it became known about the data leak of 20 million Instagram users. The corresponding database was put up for sale at a price of 2.8 bitcoin (about $22 thousand).

Users' notes, profile descriptions, emails and mobile phones were in the public domain, Izvestia writes with reference to Device Lock information.

Journalists analyzed the "test" part of the database, posted in the public domain, and confirmed that the data contained in it fully coincides with the information of real accounts.

Not a single account of a Russian-speaking user was among the verified, - the publication clarifies.

Device Lock believes that this database could belong to an Indian marketing company, which in May this year left its own server in the public domain, which stored a database of 49 million lines, which was copied by scammers.

Since then, this information has periodically surfaced on closed forums and specialized resources on the darknet. It is possible that attackers are currently trying to sell part of the data that was stolen from a marketing company.

We launched an investigation relating to this database last week. At this stage, we believe that access to personal information has not been obtained. The method of scraping [data collection], which was used to collect data, is no longer possible after the changes that we made earlier this year, the press service said. Facebook

For users, this leak is relatively safe, unlike leaks of information from banks or government agencies: it is difficult for fraudsters to monetize the information received, Vladimir Ulyanov from Zecurion is sure. The stolen information may be of interest to advertisers on Instagram itself.^[15]

Instagram influencers began to be trained at the university

In mid-October 2019, the Italian online university eCampus offered a three-year degree program for social media influencers. This program is sponsored by football star Cristiano Ronaldo, who not only participates in the college advertising campaign, but also funds 36 student grants in this specialty. Read more here.

Instagram filters give a powerful boost to the cosmetics market

In mid-September 2019, L'Oreal CEO Jean-Paul Agon said that Instagram gave a powerful impetus to the cosmetics market - after all, young women have to devote much more energy and time to makeup in order to look as good as on selfies with Instagram filters. Read more here.

Launch in 7 countries of the feed without likes to reduce the income of popular authors

In September 2019, an updated Instagram feed without a likes counter is already available in seven countries around the world. The official reason for the refusal was concern for users, because recently the opinion has begun to prevail that the psychological state of a person directly depends on approval in social networks.

Instagram's attempts to eliminate likes in the struggle for users' peace of mind look implausible when you recall that the most popular post in Instagram's history, with 53.7 million likes, was an egg photo posted as part of a mental health ad campaign.

Obviously, Facebook, which owns Instagram, plans to limit the earnings of influencer bloggers and is trying to increase its revenue from targeted advertising.

While ordinary platform users consider the innovation useful, popular influencers massively complain about the infringement of their rights - without likes, they cannot assess the interests of subscribers: "Likes are motivation. It's like at the end of the performance you don't hear the applause "

What does that say?

1) The network is seriously determined to strike at the influencer industry and business around this area. Indeed, judging by the latest research by Cheq analysts, "brands spend more than $1 billion a year on cooperation with influencers with fake subscribers."

2) Instagram, canceling likes, wants to increase audience engagement, urging bloggers to develop comments on posts.

3) Instagram plans to protect users from cyberbullying by connecting artificial intelligence to comment moderation .

The new feature is already available to a number of users in seven countries: Australia, Brazil, Italy, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and Japan. In Russia, the new interface is already being tested, although not massively.

Companies waste $1.3 billion a year on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube: bots "watch" ads

At the end of July 2019, researchers reported that companies are wasting more than $1.3 billion a year on targeted marketing on social networks, since many unscrupulous users of social networks buy fake subscribers or use services to cheat on likes, views and comments. Read more here.

Zuckerberg forced Instagram founders to leave the company, embezzling their merits and taking away growth opportunities

In April 2019, the reasons for the departure from Facebook of Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, who resigned in September 2018, became known. The events preceding their departure were reported by Wired, restoring a detailed picture based on interview materials with 65 current and former Facebook employees. Systrom, 34, served as CEO of Instagram, and Krieger, 32, was senior technical director^[16].

Recall that Facebook announced the purchase of Instagram for $1 billion in 2012. It was assumed that Instagram will retain the name and team, and with the social network Facebook it will be integrated extremely carefully. Some time after the acquisition, some of Facebook's top executives had the feeling that Instagram's rapid growth was sucking opportunities out of Facebook itself to grow and reach new audiences. Indeed, Facebook has helped Instagram grow, including by providing it with its servers and skilled engineers, and by integrating two apps.

The Instagram founders "communication with the Facebook team was not entirely smooth. Taking advantage of the fact that Mark Zuckerberg began a reorganization of top management, Systrom and Krieger even gave the then head of News Feed Adam Mosseri the powers of their official representative on Facebook. They needed a buffer that would protect Instagram from the demands of Facebook interfering in their affairs.

2018

Launching IGTV as a YouTube competitor

Instagram launched IGTV in 2018 as a competitor to Google's YouTube. This is a service with short videos lasting up to an hour. Content can be recorded by both influencers and media companies like National Geographic.

Sacking co-founders over leadership conflict with Facebook

On September 24, 2018, Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger announced their departure from the company. The top managers themselves do not talk about the reasons for the dismissal, but the media is aware of them.

According to sources of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), a few months before the resignation of the co-founders of Instagram, a conflict arose with the leadership of Facebook (the company bought Instagram in 2012) over the degree of freedom of operation of the photo service. Bloomberg clarifies that top managers have disagreements with Mark Zuckerberg amid the further development of Instagram. Top managers were disappointed that Zuckerberg is increasingly involved in the daily solution of current problems, say the interlocutors of the news agency.

 In June 2018, Systrom , in a conversation with Re/code, noted that Zuckerberg does not just outbid himself and give free rein to executives, but he understands that this freedom helps the company work better.

As Reuters notes, Instagram and Facebook operate independently, and both services hardly mention each other. But as regulators pushed Facebook to improve personal data protection, fight social media addiction and fake news, Zuckerberg and other executives began to put more and more pressure on company-controlled projects and monitor their work.

Earlier in 2018, Jan Kum, founder of the WhatsApp messenger, which the world's largest social network acquired in 2014 for $19 billion, left Facebook.

We plan to take a short break to re-explore our curiosity and creativity, "said Kevin Systrom, commenting on leaving Instagram.

In Silicon Valley, they considered the purchase of Instagram correct for Facebook. At the same time, the service team remained small, and Systrom had enough freedom to expand the functionality of the application. Under his leadership, Instagram got the opportunity to post videos, post ads, text between users of tete-a-tete and much more.^[17]

Capitalization increase by 100 times in 6 years to $100 billion

Instagram, for which Facebook posted $1 billion in 2012, costs at least $100 billion for June 2018.

The last major valuation of the asset was conducted by Citigroup in 2014. Then Instagram was estimated at $35 billion.

Over the next 12 months, Instagram's annual revenue will exceed $10 billion, the platform attracts new users faster than Facebook (Instagram is owned by the latter), Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jitendra Varal concluded in June 2018. In June, the platform crossed the mark of 1 billion active users per month, it can double this figure over the next five years, he said. In addition, Instagram has a younger audience than Facebook, making the platform more attractive to advertisers. If Instagram were an independent company, its cost would be more than $100 billion, an analyst at Bloomberg^[18] estimated ^[19].

2012: Facebook buys Instagram for $1bn

In April 2012, Instagram was acquired by Facebook. The purchase price amounted to $300 million in cash and 23 million shares of the company. In total, the amount amounted to $1 billion.

There were just 13 employees on Instagram at the time of the deal.

Notes