Instagram has announced that its active base has breached 300 million users. Of this base, over 70% of them live outside the US. Since the late 2010 launch of the popular photo sharing up, users have managed to post more than 70 million photos and 2.5 billion likes a day. All in all, Instagram’s users have managed to create a catalog with over 30 billion photos. For an app four years old, that’s pretty impressive.
As a part of this announcement, Instagram has also unveiled some exciting new features. Verification badges for celebrities, athletes, and brands are now available. This move is designed to bolster Instagram’s authentic ideology. Allowing Instagram users to follow public figures backed by a trusted source is just one of the app maker’s moves to make the Instagram experience the most authentic possible. Fake and spam accounts will also be addressed. Kevin Systrom, CEO of Instagram relayed this in a recent press release by stating: “We’re committed to doing everything possible to keep Instagram free from the fake and spammy accounts that plague much of the web, and that’s why we’re finishing up some important work that began earlier this year.” This is a huge gain for the community of over 300 million users in Instagram’s network.
I’d be willing to wager that over half the accounts on Instagram fake and at least 60% of the photos posted spam garbage. Search on any popular hashtag–and most of the unpopular hashtags–and you’ll have to sift through spam, insipid ‘shoutout’ pages, porn, etc, just to find anything relevant. Most social networks are doing a better job dealing with spam but Instagram sure isn’t.