Instagram said today that it now has over 700 million monthly active users (MAUs), an increase of 100 million (17%) in just four months. The photo-based social network - which has been owned by Facebook since 2012 - had previously grown from 500 million to 600 million MAUs in six months.
According to The New York Times, Instagram claims that around 400 million of its current users - or roughly 57% - check in to its service daily, many of them doing so more than once a day.
CNBC noted that the company had attributed much of its growth to a streamlined sign-up process, and improved discovery of friends on the platform, along with the introduction of new features such as Instagram Stories, which lets users post photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours.
Instagram Stories was introduced in August, but already has 200 million users a day. Snapchat, which offers similar functionality, currently has 161 million daily active users.
Source: The New York Times