Instagram announced a new milestone today — less than a year after hitting the 200 million monthly active user mark the photo and video sharing service is now celebrating 300 million monthly active users.
These latest numbers represent a jump of 50% in only 9 months. If you’re keeping score, that means it’s now well ahead of Twitter’s monthly active user count, which was last reported to be 284 million.
With a reported 70 million photos and videos being shared each day, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom states that the company is “thrilled to watch this community thrive and witness the amazing connections people make over shared passions and journeys.”
As Instagram grows, more “fake and spammy” accounts are jumping on board in an effort to reach this growing audience. The company illustrates measures being taken to combat this, which includes deactivating such accounts on a routine basis.
One final announcement sees the introduction of a feature being used by other leading social networks. As notable public figures flock to Instagram, the company has introduced a way to help users distinguish real accounts from impostors.
Taking a page out of Facebook and Twitter’s playbook, in the next several days Instagram will be rolling out verified badges for celebrities, athletes and brands. So in case you had any doubt about whether you were following the real account of your favorite celebs, or a fake one, you’ll soon know for sure just which is which.
