Instagram passes 500 million users limit

Instagram has doubled its user base in two years. The social photo service now has more than half a billion monthly and 300 million daily active users. Most of the users are from outside the United States.

More than eighty percent of users come from outside the US, Instagram reports in a blog post. The photo and video sharing service started in 2010 and reached 100 million monthly active users by 2012. At the beginning of 2014, that had risen to 200 million and at the end of that year the counter stood at 300 million.

In April of 2012, Instagram was acquired by Facebook, after which many users on the internet announced that they were switching to alternatives. However, this has not hindered growth, the new figures show. Facebook itself has 1.65 billion monthly and 1.09 billion daily active users. WhatsApp, also a Facebook component, has 1 billion monthly active users.