If you have used any sort of social media application in the past, then it is almost certain that you know about Instagram. Instagram is one of the largest social media platforms to date with over 500 million daily users. Instagram was created back in 2010 and continues to be a leading platform of its kind. The question is, how has it kept up with its competitors all these years?
Instagram has been able to stay on top of the social media game for a while. Only two years after it was first created, Instagram was acquired by Facebook. Since then, it has undergone small and large changes on a very regular basis, which have kept users hooked.
In the beginning, Instagram was marketed as a simple photo sharing app where people could share photos with their followers. The features were limited compared to what is possible now, but the simplicity of the mobile app intrigued many people from the start. Being the first of its kind, Instagram, always had some advantage, but it wasn’t long until competitors like Snapchat and Pinterest (created just before Instagram) started gaining momentum as well. Later, TikTok became a main competitor.
Throughout the years, Instagram has been ahead of the game with the introduction of direct messaging. Other times they have had to keep up by taking inspiration from other social media apps like Snapchat when they introduced their own version of disappearing content: stories.
All this was also supported by the ever-changing algorithms which perfected the art of keeping users hooked to their screens, making ads profitable. Instagram was able to stay alive and well for so long thanks to its ad functions, making it one of the world’s largest marketing tools for individuals and businesses.
This is how Instagram has kept up over the years. Through constant change and revision, always paying attention to what will keep user on the platform for the longest. Will it continue to stay on top? Only time will tell.