Instagram launched their ‘Stories’ system just a couple months ago, and they have been working hard to encourage people to view these videos. This includes giving stories a very prominent position at the top of the screen for all users. These efforts have really been paying off. According to the latest reports, Instagram Stories are getting 100 million people to view them each day.
Having 100 million active users is a huge accomplishment. This is out of the roughly 300 million active Instagram users. Some people seem to be downplaying the accomplishment because it is still a minority of the total number of users. While that is true, it is hard to say that Instagram Stories hasn’t been a big success.
As soon as Snapchat users saw the new Instagram stories update they immediately started questioning if Instagram had copied Snapchat and a plethora of copycat memes and rants began appearing on Twitter. Surprisingly, though, Instagram has been pretty open about the fact that they did indeed copy Snapchat’s ideas in their Instagram Stories update. In an interview with TechCrunch, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom readily admitted that Snapchat deserved “all the credit” for the idea behind the Stories update.
While Instagram undoubtedly still needs to try to gain the interest of the other 2/3’s of their users, they are off to a good start. The announcement confirming that in just two months they have passed the 100 million active viewers on this type of video is a big deal. In addition to showing that Stories is a success, it will definitely catch the attention of marketers who are looking for places to put their advertisements and other marketing efforts.
