Instagram reported a whopping 90 million regular users and confirms they continue to enjoy "very strong growth."
After a third party analytic company reported Instagram experienced a decline in users at the end of 2012, Instagram released a report of their numbers for the first time, revealing 90 million monthly users.
The website revealed that these 90 million users were all active and shared 40 million photos through the website daily. It receives 8,500 likes per second and gets about 1,000 comments per second from all its users.
"Instagram continues to see very strong growth around the world," Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram, told technology news site AllThingsD. "With many of the product and internationalization improvements we've made, we've been excited to see these efforts resonate with users globally."
In December, Instagram had as many critics as it had users after a change they made to their user terms. The new update led users to believe that Instagram would sell pictures shared on the site to advertisers.
A section, in particular, where Instagram said users must agree that "a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos ... in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you," led to a string of complaints.
The company later clarified the original statement as just a misunderstanding as they explained the scenario in a blog yesterday.
"Instagram users own their content and Instagram does not claim any ownership rights over your photos," co-founder Kevin Systrom said. "Nothing about this has changed. We respect that there are creative artists and hobbyists alike that pour their heart into creating beautiful photos, and we respect that your photos are your photos. Period."
The company also clarified that if there had been any drop in active users in the month of December, it was probably because people tend to visit their social networking accounts less during the holiday season.
