Instagram Stories, WhatsApp Status surpass Snapchat in popularity

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg announced on Thursday that Instagram Stories and WhatsApp Status both now have 300 million daily active users.

With that number, the two social networks have surpassed Snapchat as the most popular messaging and photo-and-video sharing platforms.

Snapchat only has 173 million daily active users as stated in the platform’s earnings report for the second quarter.

50 million increase

The new stats for both platforms include a 50-million increase from 250 million for Instagram recorded in June and WhatsApp in July.

Zuckerberg announced the new number of daily active users of Instagram Stories and WhatsApp Status in a Q3 earnings call.

Record revenue

Facebook earned record revenue and an all-time high share price despite the shadow cast by the use of the platform by Russian entities in interference in last year’s U.S. elections, TechCrunch reported.

According to a Verge report, Facebook “made $10.1 billion in revenue over a three-month period, 49 percent more than the same quarter in 2016.”

“It also booked $4.7 billion in profit, a whopping 79 percent increase from the same period last year. It’s operating margin is now up to 50 percent.”

TechCrunch’s Josh Constine said: “Now that most of Facebook products, including Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories and Messenger Day, have their own augmented reality face filters, they’ve hit a degree of feature parity with Snapchat.”

“That means we may see more innovation now that there’s less of a Snap roadmap to follow.”

Zuckerberg said during the earnings call: “Research shows that interacting with friends and family on social media tends to be more meaningful and can be good for our well-being, and that’s time well spent.”

Policy vs. abuse to cut into profits?

Meanwhile, The Verge said while the company’s earnings report does not state it, the social network’s expenses “may rise in the near future.”

The company announced that it is doubling the number of employees focused on policing the platform against abuse.

“Left unsaid was that the vast majority of these would probably be contractors hired through a third-party firm. Still, Facebook made clear that it expected to incur significant new costs because of this expansion,” The Verge said.

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