‘Instagram will soon eclipse Twitter’

Management at Instagram believes its user base will eventually grow to 1 billion monthly active users — making the photo sharing app far, far bigger than Twitter. Currently, Instagram has 200 million monthly active users, putting it within catching distance of Twitter’s 255 million MAUs.

Twi t t er CEO Dick Costolo has long believed that Twitter will reach every person on the planet. But user growth at Twitter has mostly stalled and with absent radical changes that goal looks like a pipe dream. Instagram, however, is currently doubling its user base every year. That growth will slow, of course. But it would be a psychologically punishing moment for Costolo’s people if Instagram eclipses Twitter.

When asked whether the 200 million user statistic merely represented downloads or current active Instagram users, Jim Squires, Instagram’s director, market operations, said the 200 million were MAUs, and that he expected that number to grow dramatically.

“Because Instagram is imagery-oriented, it’s universal ... we’re very focused on growth and plan to grow it to 1 billion users. That’s what we’re doing.”

Instagram isn’t bound by language — a cool picture from Thailand can go as viral as one from Boise, Idaho; but a Facebook post in English might grind to a halt where people speak Thai. Squires said two-thirds of Instagram’s users are outside the US and that the app was seeing “heavy” growth internationally. “I don’t see that stopping anytime soon,” Squires added.