Instagram Surpasses 3 Billion MAU... Zuckerberg Praises "Incredible Community"

Zuckerberg Acquired Instagram for $1 Billion in 2012
3 Billion MAU Achieved in 13 Years: "Incredible"
27.41 Million Users in Korea... KakaoTalk Remains No. 1

The global social networking service (SNS) platform Instagram has surpassed 3 billion monthly active users (MAU). On September 24 (local time), Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, announced on his Instagram account, "We have built an incredible community here." This milestone comes 13 years after Meta acquired Instagram for $1 billion in 2012.

Before Instagram, the only SNS platforms to exceed 3 billion MAU were Facebook and WhatsApp, both owned by Meta. Zuckerberg claimed in January last year that Facebook had surpassed 3 billion MAU, and in April of the same year, he stated that WhatsApp had also crossed the 3 billion MAU mark.

Meta has been releasing the daily active user (DAP) figures for its family of apps-including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads-every quarter. In July, this number reached 3.48 billion, surpassing analysts' expectations of 3.45 billion.

However, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed a lawsuit in 2020, alleging that Meta's acquisitions of Instagram (2012) and WhatsApp (2014) constituted illegal monopolistic practices that harm market competition. The trial is currently ongoing. In the worst-case scenario, Meta may be required to sell these apps.

On September 24, Korean market research firm WiseApp·Retail conducted a sample survey of smartphone users, revealing that as of last month, the most widely used SNS app among Koreans was KakaoTalk, with 48.19 million MAU. Instagram ranked second (27.41 million), followed by Band (17.08 million), Naver Cafe (9.3 million), and TikTok (8.32 million). The app with the longest average usage time per person was TikTok Lite, with an average of 18 hours and 57 minutes. Instagram was second (18 hours and 1 minute), TikTok third (17 hours and 41 minutes), X fourth (14 hours and 58 minutes), and KakaoTalk fifth (11 hours and 25 minutes).

Recently, KakaoTalk has drawn attention by revamping its friends tab from the traditional phonebook format to an Instagram-style interface. Instead of simply listing contacts in alphabetical order, the new format displays various posts uploaded by users. When users update their profile photos, status messages, or create posts, these are now shown on their profile home.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.