The rival of multimedia messaging app Snapchat, a unit of Snap Inc. (SNAP), has been a golden goose for Facebook since the social media giant acquired it in April 2012. Facebook does not reveal about the financials for Instagram. According to market research firm eMarketer, Instagram’s ad revenue in 2018 is expected to be $7.94 billion.
According to KeyBanc analyst Andy Hargreaves, Instagram will cross the 1 billion average users mark in the second half of 2018 and he expects Instagram to account for 26% of Facebook’s ad revenue in 2020. In September 2017, Instagram stated that it has 800 million users, with 500 million using it every day. In November 2017, the number of business profiles grew to 25 million from 15 million in July.
Instagram has planned for a special event on June 20. There are reports that say either the Facebook subsidiary may unveil a video hub or it might announce that it reached 1 billion users. So far, Instagram has not revealed on what went wrong today.