On October 6, 2010, Instagram was launched on the market as a promising social network that distinguished itself from existing ones by having photography as its main content. 13 years later, the social network has grown immensely and is the second most used in the world.

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger are the founders of one of the most popular social networks in the world, which already has more than 2 billion users. Since it was launched in 2010, Instagram has been one of the platforms that has evolved the most in its features, from the emergence of Instagram Stories to Instagram’s threads.

In this article, we will review the 19 most curious facts about Instagram, from its users to the platform as a company.

Table of Contents

Brief history of Instagram

The 19 more curious facts about Instagram…

• …And its users
• …And the most prominent accounts and posts
• …And the most shared content
• … And the social network as a company.

Brief history of Instagram

Initially intended to publish only photographs, Instagram was inspired by Polaroid and Kodak Instamatic cameras. Allowing only photos with a square aspect ratio, Instagram was created and launched on the market on October 6, 2010, to be the digital version of a photo album.

In just two years, Instagram became very popular and gained more than 100 million users. In the same year, in 2012, the social network was acquired by Facebook – now called Meta. What distinguishes Instagram – and other Meta group platforms – from other social networks is that they are constantly evolving and adding new features in order to keep users interested.

One of the most successful features was Instastories. This update was launched in 2016, as a way to compete directly with Snapchat, a network for sharing multimedia content that disappears after a time set by users.

Two years later, IGTV was launched as a way to compete with YouTube, reels were implemented in 2020 to cope with the growth of TikTok, and in 2023 Threads was created, a platform adjacent to Instagram to compete with Twitter.

The 19 facts about Instagram…

…And its users

1. More than 60% of Instagram users log in daily
2. Instagram is the fourth most used social network, just behind Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp.
3. 32% of the population that uses the Internet has an account on this social network.
4. Around 100 million accounts share at least one story daily.
5. It is estimated that, in one day, 80 million photos are shared and 3.5 billion likes are posted.
6. Currently, there are around 1 billion active accounts.
7. A study carried out by the social network itself shows that 8% of Instagram accounts are fake.
8. 60% of people with an Instagram account use the platform to discover new products.
9. In 2017, Instagram was the most used social network for cyberbullying.
10. Seven countries have blocked or restricted the use of Instagram by their citizens. They are Russia, Belarus, China, North Korea, Iran, Turkmenistan and Uganda.

…And the most highlighted accounts and posts

11. The first post on the platform was a photo of a dog, published on July 16^th, 2010, and the author was the co-creator of Instagram: Kevin Systrom.
12. With more than 490 million followers, football player Cristiano Ronaldo’s @cristiano account is the most followed on Instagram.
13. The most liked Instagram post is a photo of American socialite Kylie Jenner’s newborn daughter. The photo has more than 17.9 million likes.
14. The most followed brands on the social network are National Geographic, Nike, Nike Football, 9GAG and Victoria’s Secret.

…And the most shared content

15. The most shared food photo on Instagram is pizza.
16. #love, #me, #cute #follow and #instagood are the most used hashtags on the social network.
17. The time spent watching videos on Instagram has increased by 80% since the platform started to highlight this format.

… And the social network as a company

18. The social network was initially called Codename, although, before launch, the creators changed the name to Instagram (a combination of “instant camera” and “telegram”).

19. On average, Instagram grows 5% per semester and has an estimated value of 100 billion dollars.