$1 a Click

As a user of Instagram, I was annoyed to see that Instagram will begin to advertise on users’ news feeds. Although it is not surprising that they are trying to increase their revenue through advertising, as Facebook has already implemented that on its website, it made me question its probability of success.

Advertising is a common issue consumers deal with on a daily basis, and it is the main way certain websites such as Facebook brings in its revenue.

However, how many users actually click on those advertisements? Most people are not using Facebook to purchase products; they are simply there to socialize. That brings up a question about online services’ business models: how reliable are they?

Although the results of having advertisement on Facebook’s website clearly prove that the strategy is working, it is not a reliable long-term method of generating revenue. It highly depends on its users. For websites like Youtube, apps such as Adblock can block out advertisements completely even when services intended on playing it before a video begins. We will likely see them implement other methods such as furthering game or mobile phone app development in order to maintain their high profits in the future.