Instagram is among some of the most popular apps of all times. The company has just proven their strength in numbers today, as they became the latest app to cross the 1 billion downloads milestone in the Google Play Store. It is the 4th Facebook owned app, after the Facebook main app, WhatsaApp, and Facebook Messenger to reach the landmark. This is indeed a major success for the app.
Having started off in 2010, it took Instagram six years to reach this milestone. What makes this an even bigger achievement is the fact that the app was originally launched for the iOS. It later moved to the Android OS as well, where it truly gained momentum, and started growing in size. Facebook had acquired the app in 2012 for a massive $1 Billion deal. The investment did pay off for Zuckerberg.
Instagram is the 19th app ever to cross the 1 billion users milestone. Most of the apps in the 1 billion user club belong to Facebook or Google. The first app to cross this landmark was Gmail. A number of Google owned apps are in the list including Google Maps, YouTube, Google Plus, Google Chrome, Google Play Music and Google Play Games. However, one must always keep in mind that the number of downloads and the number of active users are always going to differ.
Twitter and Snapchat too, are growing in size, and either of them can soon become the next 1 Billion user app. Snapchat was growing at a much rapid pace, until Facebook halted the train as they empowered Instagram with ‘stories’ and brought MSQRD to Facebook. Two blows in two days, and Snapchat is now in a serious need to come out with a radically new feature that will help them stay afloat in these incredibly competitive markets.