There once was a time when social media giants Facebook and Twitter were advertisement-free. Just last week, Instagram hopped onto the newsfeed-advertisement bandwagon when it announced that it will also start featuring advertisements on users’ news feeds – an action which we cannot say we did not see coming. The question now is, will this decrease the amount of users the photo-sharing service will have in the future? Instagram assures users that it will start out slow though – it will show advertisements “only occasionally and only from companies that are already members in good standing of the Instagram community”. The company says they will aim to make advertisements “as natural to Instagram as the photos and videos [users] already enjoy”. This is a way of the company expanding their business model – they have added another method of revenue stream in the business model canvas by going forward with this decision and will now gain revenue from their advertising clientele. In my personal opinion, I do not think that advertisements on Instagram feeds would necessarily be a bad thing for users – if Instagram really is going to be careful in what they advertise and expose unique and interesting companies and users whom I would have never discovered, then I am all for it.
Article: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-03/instagram-will-have-ads-dot-get-over-it
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