Instagram is undoubtedly the era’s most addictive, eminent, and beloved app. It was born on October 6, 2010, and just in a decade, it has gathered more than a billion registered users in its database.
Imagine the pace at which this social media giant is scaling itself every year.
You have to give credits to the people behind Instagram strategy because what they started a decade ago as an innocent app for people to share their pouted selfies is now loaded with all the significant advertisers wanting to gain your attention.
Although features like shopping tabs and few others are catering more to advertisers than their users, Instagram statistics keep touching new zenith.
The user interaction shoots up every single year, quite fascinating, right?
Ex-Google employee Kevin Systrom and software engineer Michael Krieger founded Instagram with the initial plan of releasing a location-sharing app called Burbn; the partners later settled on a photo-sharing application with numerous photo filters giving birth to the addictive trap which will get you glued to your phone for several minutes.
Seriously, how does one stop scrolling on Instagram?
Instagram has now become a one-stop-shop kind of platform that has numerous things to offer to its users and advertising agencies without compromising with the essence of the app.
If you still don’t believe us, here are 20 interesting as well as unbelievable Instagram facts and numbers that will leave you astonished.
20 Instagram Facts & Statistics That Matters for Marketers in 2021
#1. User Engagement Per Day
Instagram statistics show that it has one of the highest user engagement rates.
It’s indeed a delightful fact for advertisers, isn’t it?
It is claimed that almost 63% of the users check the app at least once per day, and 42% of users are checking the app several times on the same day.
Merely 15-18% of users admitted checking the app once a week or less.
#2. More Than A Billion Users Across The Globe
In June of 2018, Instagram recorded its billionth user, and that number is well beyond that in 2021.
It isn’t easy to give any specific figures as of now because the company likes to keep its stats heavily under the wraps.
Currently, over 1 billion people use Instagram every month, which makes Instagram the 2nd ranked traditional social network in terms of the number of active users. It is only behind Facebook as of now.
When considering all social media platforms, Instagram ranks sixth – behind Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat.
#3. 8.8% Of Instagram Users Are Spending More Than 5 Hours Per Day On The Platform
As per a study – approximately 50.5% of users agreed that they spend between one and three hours, or at least an hour a day.
Instagram content strategies like hashtag research, what times you should post, whether your filter is a trending one, understanding the analytics, etc., takes a good amount of time.
On the other hand, creating content from design, choosing colour palette and overall appearance of your Instagram would also influence each brand’s target audience.
That is when branding profile comes in.
Each brand keeping in trends for trending Instagram marketing tips from best Instagram ideas to level up your Instagram feed from liking, commenting, browsing hashtags, searching and following new or popular accounts, responding to DMs, and the list goes on.
Instagram has everything in its bucket for you to find a good reason to keep scrolling and not closing the app for hours.
#4. Third Most Popular Social Networking Choice Of Us Teens Between 2012 And 2020
According to a survey conducted in 2020, approx. 34% of teens in the United States reported that Snapchat was their first social media pick, followed by TikTok, which was picked by 29% of the teens.
With 23% of US teens being active users and preferring it over other social media applications, Instagram was ranked third in the list. We are sure the equations and numbers are changing quite drastically now.
Instagram Malaysia has also got a huge user base; top Malaysian influencers with most instagram followers like Siti Nurhaliza, Zizan Razak, Neelofa, Nora are the most followed personalities here in Malaysia.
#5. Instagram Users Engaged In Shopping Posts
More than 130 million users interact with shopping posts (including shopping stories) every month, proving the feature’s popularity in both customer demand and product awareness.
Moreover, users can also make purchases without ever having to leave the app or getting redirected to some vendor app/website, which explains such posts’ high engagement.
With all the new shopping and e-commerce features rolled out in recent years, it’s easier than ever for brands to do marketing Instagram, i.e., selling the products directly within the app.
#6. Users in Instagram Malaysia
There were more than 11,500,000 Instagram Malaysia users in March 2020, which accounted for 34.4% of its entire population.
The majority, i.e., 54.2% of them are women and the largest group of users (4,200,000) were people aged between 25 to 34 years.
As of 2019, the actress-model Noor Neelofa is on top of the most followed local Instagram accounts in Malaysia, with more than 6.13 million followers. Noor Neelofa is also an entrepreneur who made it to the “Forbes 30 under 30 Asia” list in 2017.
Lofa (Neelofa) shows that being popular on Instagram takes more than just having a lovely Instagram gallery or good photography skills.
She is regarded as one of Malaysia’s leading social media personalities, with the highest number of quality Instagram followers and authentic user engagement numbers.
The above two qualities are among the most important factors that are looked for by brands when choosing an influencer for their business or products.
#7. Instagram Is The 6th Most Visited Website
Even though Instagram is mostly used through its mobile app, it still cracks the list of the top 10 most visited websites globally.
It ranks #6 and gets more than 6 billion monthly visitors.
People might be seeing your profile and posts on a larger screen more than you think.
The website is also maintained with supreme quality, just like the app. It shows how much attention is given to the website despite having their major part of the mobile app’s user-base.
#8. Instagram Is The 9th Most Popular Google Query
As mentioned in one of the earlier Instagram facts, Instagram is primarily accessed via mobile app, yet it’s in the 9th position in the list of most popular Google queries and likes of Facebook, Google, YouTube, Amazon, and some generic terms like News and Weather.
It is indeed a great display of excellent Instagram content strategy, and it’ll surely surpass one or two of the popular queries in the coming years.
#9. Images On Instagram Get 23% More Engagement Compared To Facebook
Instagram Malaysia’s young, energetic and creative user base willing to participate or interact with almost every feature on the app is no secret to anyone.
This fact alone is responsible for attracting many investors and advertisers and luring them to invest more.
The 23% difference in engagement numbers is very significant for them as more user engagement means more interaction with their ads or products, which, in turn, provides more return on investment.
#10. Instagram Malaysia Posts Containing Videos Receive More Engagement Than Posts With Still Images
As we all know, posts containing videos are more engaging; hence such posts see an impressive 38% increase in engagement as compared to posts with just images or small GIFs.
This Instagram strategy is a no-brainer because the human eye is naturally drawn towards a moving object.
With the launch of new Instagram updates such as Instagram Reels, the engagement has increased exponentially, and almost 40% of Instagram Malaysia videos are watched without any audio.
#11. The Active Presence Of Brands On Instagram Malaysia Are Viewed Favorably By Users
A study suggests that approximately 78% of users perceived brands on Instagram as popular, 77% of the users claimed they were creative, 76% reported they saw the brands as entertaining, and 72% said that the brand seemed committed to building a lively community.
The consistent presence of brands on Instagram is sure to leave a positive impact on users.
Nearly 4% of accounts engage with brands on Instagram, a pretty decent figure and one of the coolest Instagram facts.
It might sound a bit underwhelming at first, just to put things into perspective – Twitter and Facebook both see around 0.1% engagement, which is a tiny fraction compared to Instagram.
#12. An Estimated 75% Of Users Interact With Instagram Ads At Some Point
According to one of the Instagram statistics and some supporting data from Hootsuite, three out of four of all Instagram users will interact with an ad they see at some point.
Some users will interact with more than just one ad, including clicking on the ad’s CTA, viewing the retailer’s profile, purchasing a product, or just surfing for more products.
It is estimated that Instagram’s ad revenue will make up for 30% of Facebook’s overall Ad revenue by the end of the year 2020.
The team of Marketing Instagram deserves all the appreciation in the world for this feat.
13. Instagram Ads Cost More Than The Ones On Facebook
The average CPC (Cost per Click) on Insta Ads is higher than Facebook, but user engagement is guaranteed.
As long as the targeted audience is on Instagram, they’ll get what they paid for.
In fact, 30% of users reported having purchased a product on Instagram with 1 billion monthly active users.
If one out of every three users has bought an item after discovering it on Instagram – no wonder why the advertisers and brands are keen and ready to spend the humongous amounts on Instagram content strategy.
#14. Daily Active Users Of Instagram Malaysia Stories
Initially accused of copying a significant feature from popular American multimedia messaging app Snapchat, Instagram Stories allows users to post photos and video sequences that stay in their stories for 24 hours.
After its initial launch in 2016, the feature amassed millions of users and in 2020, the application reported more than 600 million daily active users of Stories.
The numbers are astounding and will keep on growing in 2021.
Instagram Stories is another major tool in their bucket that helps users quickly create a post or information without worrying about removing or deleting the same when the task/occasion is over or no longer needed.
#15. The Gender Mix On Instagram Is Pretty Even- 51% Female And 49% Male
In the United States, 43% of women use Instagram, which is substantially higher than men, which is 31%.
However, it is worth noting that Instagram does not publish advertising data for genders other than female or male.
These discrepancies suggest that you can’t make any assumptions about demographics on Instagram.
You can’t even make assumptions about the demographics of your own followers.
Instead, you can use social media analytics tools to get a fair amount of detailed information about your audience for a better Instagram content strategy and ad targeting.
#16. Hashtags & Tagged Location Can Boost Your Instagram Malaysia Account’s Engagement
Another one of the most interesting Instagram facts, just one well-phrased hashtag can boost an account’s engagement by 12.6%. Longer-hashtag Instagram strategy gets more positive results. More specific, particular phrases are likely to bring up the exact niche you desire. Hashtags with an average of 21-24 characters perform better than hashtags that contain less than that.
Instagram posts with a tagged location get an average of 79% more engagement. For businesses to stay on a customer’s radar, geotagging is a great Instagram strategy for business. It helps improve a brand’s reach and pushes them up further on a user’s search results
#17. Kazakhstan Has The Highest Instagram Percentage Reach Overall
Kazakhstan does not have the highest number of Instagram users, but it is where Instagram reaches the highest percentage of the population, i.e., 78.7%, to be precise.
The top five countries with the highest percentage of Instagram reach are Kazakhstan (78.7%), Brunei (70.5%), Turkey (68.4%), Iceland (66.5%), and Sweden (66.5%).
Instagram could be an incredibly effective platform if you’re marketing to people in these countries for both organic content as well as paid Instagram posts.
#18. The Like Button Gets Hit 4.2 Billion Times In A Single Day
According to a report, Instagram garnered close to 4.2 billion Likes by users worldwide in just one day.
The Like button is perhaps the most used feature of Instagram or any social media platform for that matter.
These Instagram statistics showcase the user’s willingness to act and participate with the app and the advertisers.
The numbers of users are expected to increase over the coming years, so the stats will surely go up manifold.
The vast numbers also come with their own challenges of storing and maintaining the data. Hence, Instagram has to put a cap on it.
Now, the maximum number of likes allowed by Instagram is 1000 per user per day.
But it’s not the same for every user. To keep your account running without running into any trouble, an Instagram Malaysia user should be satisfied with approximately 700 likes per day.
#19. Worldwide Distribution Of Instagram Users By Age And Gender
Are you ready for some serious Instagram facts? Users between the age groups of 13 to 17 years and 25 to 34 years have almost a similar male-to-female ratio.
Approximately 3.6% are males, and 3.7% are female in the 13 to 17 years age group.
In the 25 to 34 years age group, 16.9% males and 16.1% are females. 15.3% of global active users are men aged between 18 to 24 years, and 14.5% are females.
More than half of the world’s Instagram user base is under 35 years of age.
These numbers drop notably for people between 35 and 44 years of age, with 7.1% being men and 8.9% women.
4.7% are females and 3.4% males in the age group of 45 to 54 years. Only 1.5% of men and 2.3% of women aged higher than 55 years use Instagram.
Aren’t these Instagram statistics overwhelming?
#20. Almost 70% Of Users Look Up Brands On Instagram
Instagram is indeed a powerful tool for building a name for your brand or business.
As evident in one of the previous Instagram facts, having an active presence on the Instagram app sways customer opinion.
70% of the total user base willing to look up brands showcases a significant probability of those users shopping from these brands.
It is observed that 80% of users follow at least one brand on Instagram.
People like to keep updated with the latest trends and fashion or any possible offers that brands happen to put out.
However, a huge mass of Instagram Malaysia users follows at least more than just one brand.
Conclusion
Instagram is undoubtedly a commercial and marketing hub.
No-one could’ve imagined it would become the most influential, engaging, and loved platform in the world.
Who could have thought that it would go on to dominate the digital landscape in such a short time?
Who could have thought that the world leaders would embrace it, create an entirely new division of the industry, redefine fame and celebrity status?
For some demographics, Instagram has outclassed Facebook as the most central social networking platform. Facebook saw this coming and bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012.
Currently, Instagram contributed more than $200 billion to Facebook’s yearly revenue.
With the figures skyrocketing every year, Instagram will monopolize the market in the upcoming days.
Want to learn more about Instagram statistics and trends for other social networks in Malaysia?
Check out our articles on our blog section to make sure you are in the right trends!
