According to a recent eMarketer report, Instagram user growth in the United States will drop to a single digit for the first time.
Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, reaching over 1 billion active users worldwide. In 2018, the platform enjoyed 10.1 percent user growth in the United States alone.
However, the 2019 user growth figure is not as favorable, according to the report.
Last year, the photo-sharing app only got 6.7 percent user growth in the U.S., hitting a single digit for the first time. What’s more, the slump is expected to continue until the end of the forecast period in 2023.
According to eMarketer, the photo-sharing app’s user base will grow slower than previous forecasts suggested.
In 2020, Instagram users will grow by 4.5 percent, instead of 5.4 percent. Similarly, 2021 will be a 3.2 percent rise, down from 4.1 percent.
When you consider the platform’s popularity, one question comes to mind:
What’s Responsible For Instagram’s Slowing Growth
The report blamed the decline in users on older age groups not joining the Facebook-owned platform as quickly as anticipated.
Meanwhile, the app gained 11.4 percent more users in the U.S. between ages 25 and 34 in 2019. But, eMarketer reported that this even this group will not experience a substantial change in the coming years.
Between Snapchat’s resurgence and TikTok‘s rise, Instagram will find it hard to maintain high growth in the coming years, the report points out.
Be that as it may, the social media platform is still doing quite well compared with its competition.
According to junior forecasting analyst at eMarketer, Nazmul Islam:
“It [Instagram] is the second-most internet-penetrated social media platform in the U.S. behind Facebook. And despite increased pressure from the competition, we expect it to maintain its second-place position with a good gap from the rest of the platforms.”
The eMarketer report further suggests that ad revenue on Instagram will continue to grow, despite the decline in user growth. “We expect the social media platform to generate $9.45 billion in ad revenues in 2019, and grow 46.6% to $13.86 billion in 2020,” the report reads.
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