2 years ago, Facebook’s Instagram had a problem: The glamorous shots of misty mountain sunsets and black sand beaches had set the bar too high.
Dare we say, the glamour shots had become too glamorous?
As CEO Kevin Systrom told Recode, the ‘Bora Bora or bust’ mentality intimidated people from posting anything less than highly curated life highlights, which ultimately discouraged people from posting every day.
That’s when IG decided to steal one of the best products ever to grace the screens of social media from their direct competitor — Snapchat.
And just like that, Instagram Stories was born
Now, 2 years later, stealing Snapchat’s idea (literally down to the face swap) is arguably the most glamorous picture Instagram has ever posted.
Recode notes that while Instagram never actually needed saving (they still had over 300m DAU’s before the heist), Stories definitely turbo-boosted the platform.
To date, Insta Stories has brought in more than 400m daily users alone — more than twice the number of users Snapchat has in its entirety — making it one of the fastest-growing media formats ever.
Snap’s growth has been, well, snapped
Soon after Instagram Stories launched, Spiegel-chat almost immediately saw its user growth rate flatline, and yesterday, Snap announced it lost 3m users last quarter — its first ever decline.
Meanwhile, some 31% of Instagram users reportedly post a Story every month, up from 21% a year prior, and 47% of users watch Stories at least weekly, up from 32% last year.
You know what they say: You don’t become an estimated $100B company without copying a few enemies.
