According to unofficial reports, Instagram’s ad revenue accounts for roughly $20 billion, over a quarter of Facebook’s total revenue in 2019.
Back in 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram for close to $1 billion. The price was surprising at the time, partly because Kevin Systrom’s photo-sharing app had no monetization model in place, but also because it was significantly more than what Facebook was paying for other acquisitions. Over the years, it’s become clear that this was a great investment for Facebook, but now we’re finding out just “how great.”
According to a recent report from Bloomberg, the popular app brings in over $20 billion in ad revenue – more than one-quarter of Facebook’s total revenue – and although it’s not the biggest single source of revenue for the company, Instagram is clearly a very major player among Facebook’s “family of apps.” Not only does it have a huge user base, but it also has the ability to make serious money.
The number was not confirmed officially, as Facebook doesn’t report on its different apps’ revenue separately, but comes directly from “people, who asked to remain anonymous,” explains the report.
The news also makes Instagram significant in another way; Alphabet Inc. announced YouTube’s revenue from ad sales for the first time this week – only $15.1 billion, representing around 2% of Alphabet’s earnings.
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