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More and more, Facebook's 2012 acquisition of Instagram looks like the best $1 billion it's ever spent.
The photo-sharing site this week noted that it now has 700 million monthly active users. That's a huge number in its own right, but what makes it more impressive is how quickly it's getting there - it was at 600 million just a little over four months ago.
As this chart from Statista shows, Instagram has been growing at a rapid clip for years now, and it doesn't seem long until it joins WhatsApp, Messenger, and Facebook proper in Facebook's billion-user app club. Given Facebook's multi-pronged attack, and given how much pressure Instagram appears to be putting on its core rival Snapchat, you can see why some onlookers said that 2012 acquisition felt too close to being anticompetitive.
Mike Nudelman/Business Insider/Statista