Instagram released some interesting statistics about its users and how they use the app. The photo-sharing app now has 90 million monthly active users — a pretty impressive feat for a mere app, and one that blossomed and thrived for quite some time without compatibility with Android. Those 90 million people are sharing 40 million photos per day, so one photo every 2-3 days per user. 8,500 photos are “liked” every second and 1,000 comments are left every second.
While in the past Instagram has reported how many users have registered for the service, it’s the first time reporting how many of those are active, which is a typically released stat in the industry. The total number of users — active and inactive — almost certainly falls between 100 and 200 million.
It doesn’t seem to be a coincidence that Instagram is putting this information out there shortly after several accusations have been made that because of its Terms of Service changes and earlier privacy concerns, many users have been lost. That’s not the case, and in fact Instagram probably enjoys getting to use these numbers as a symbolic middle finger.
The aforementioned accusations included reports of as high as a 50 percent decline in user activity because of the Terms of Service and advertising scandal, if one finds that to be an appropriate sentiment. They are all clearly false. The new Terms of Service, which goes into effect this week, has not had any negative impact on Instagram usage.