When it released the feature in August, Instagram was widely seen to have copied one of Snapchat’s most unique features, something its own CEO did not deny.
However, despite early criticisms, Instagram Stories has proven very popular amongst Instagram 500m monthly active users, with 100m now viewing these stories on a daily basis.
The Stories feature works by letting Instagram users post “personal moments” onto the social platform, essentially sharing a series of photos & videos that are stitched together in a slideshow format.
After 24 hours, these photos disappear into the ether, just as with Snapchat’s own feature.
And with daily active user figures sitting at 100m, the feature already has 2/3 of the number of daily active users that Snapchat has, which reported its global active user base to be 150m in September.
For more context, Instagram’s overall user base is half that of Facebook Messenger, which has 1bn MAUs.
Read more about Stories here.