Instagram is entering the revenue generation business by introducing advertisements in users' feed but guarantees the ads will be "enjoyable and creative" and from select brands.
Instagram, renowned photo and video-sharing service, is talking business. Like it or not, Instagram will be introducing advertisements in your feeds in the coming months. But if it makes you feel any better, the online photo and video sharing service promises that the ads will be "enjoyable and creative" from select brands.
Founded in 2010 and acquired by Facebook in April 2012 for approximately $1billion in cash and stock, Instagram has grown enormously over the past years. Earlier last month, the company announced that its user-base has grown to 150 million active consumers in just three years since its debut. Instagram kept out advertisements from its service until now, but after achieving a sustainable position in the market, it is an expected move for the company to get into the business of generating revenues. After all Facebook wants some returns on its $1 billion investment in the firm!
The idea has been long in the offing but Thursday, Instagram dropped an official word on the subject.
"In the next couple months, you may begin seeing an occasional ad in your Instagram feed if you're in the United States," the company wrote in its blog. "Seeing photos and videos from brands you don't follow will be new, so we'll start slow. We'll focus on delivering a small number of beautiful, high-quality photos and videos from a handful of brands that are already great members of the Instagram community."
A least we can be sure of one thing, Instagram will not bombard users' feed with a bunch of ads. Users can also hide an advertisement if found inappropriate, which will help the online photo sharing service to better understand customers' needs.
Instagram also emphasized that the introduction of advertisements does not change terms of service; a valuable lesson it learnt after the debacle in 2012, when the social media created a panic with a release of its new terms of service. Instagram's terms of service included a section, which gave the company the right to sell users' photos to advertisers. But later it blamed the misunderstanding on "sloppy wording."
"As always, you own your own photos and videos. The introduction of advertising won't change this," Instagram wrote on Thursday's blog.
It isn't clear exactly when the new ads will start appearing on the social networking service, but occasional ads in the user feeds will begin in the next couple of months.
