Driven by smartphones users, Facebook's photo sharing service passes a milestone, while Facebook itself has announced 1 billion monthly users on mobile phones

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Instagram now has 200 million monthly active users sharing 60m photos a day, the service has announced, totalling to 20bn photos shared since it launched in 2010.

The photo-sharing service has added around 170 million users since its acquisition by Facebook in April 2012 for $1bn, with 50m joining in the last six months.

“From documenting a passion for jazz to the protests in Kiev, we’re continually surprised and humbled by the moments you share,” said an Instagram spokesperson in a blog post.

Mobile focus for Facebook

Since being bought by Facebook, Instagram has added support for Windows Phone, introduced Instagram Direct – a private photo sharing feature – and added the ability to share video clips of up to 15 seconds.

Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, also announced that the social network had passed the 1 million monthly active mobile user milestone, during a call discussing the company’s purchase of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset on Tuesday.

Facebook had 945 million monthly active users on mobile in the fourth quarter of 2013, which generated 53% of the company’s advertising revenue in the same quarter.

Facebook’s recent $19bn acquisition of the WhatsApp mobile messaging service, as well as the introduction of Facebook Paper and other in-house Facebook mobile apps shows that the social network is focused on mobile, as more and more eyeballs migrate to the portable screen.

• The future of Facebook is to reach billions of mobile users