Instagram has reached 150 million monthly users milestone, it announced on its blog. The number of users rose nearly 100 million since its acquisition a year ago by Facebook. Instagram has got 50 million users in the last six months. Growth is good and but unless you have a way to monetize these users the numbers mean nothing. Facebook has hinted at monetizing Instagram at some point. Today WSJ reports that Instagram will serve ads with in the next year.
Emily White, Instagram’s director business operations told WSJ that Instagram should be ready to begin selling ads within the next year. Her first challenge is now to introduce ads without effecting user experience. Currently Instagram has no ads, initially Instagram doesn’t have a web interface, it was introduced later.
It is not clear what type of ads will pop up there and where, but White tells WSJ that they are looking at Instagram’s discover feature and search feature as of now. She also told that some retailers want product pictures on the network should link to the products on their websites.
