Instagram, the video and photo sharing platform owned by Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is transforming itself into a sustainable and serious advertising business by taking advantage of the tools and network marketers of its parent company.
Instagram decided to open its advertising platform to small business in 31 more countries around the world starting on Wednesday.
Instagram offers different options for advertisers
Prior to the expansion, Instagram’s advertising platform was only available to a select group of big brands in the United States. Companies currently have different options to offer their products or services to consumers. Advertisers could use the 30-second video spots or ads with prompts such as “Shop Now” of “Install Now.”
Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion in 2012. Bloomberg noted that Instagram is the first among the acquisitions of the social network giant that achieved such level of advertising sophistication.
The transformation of the video and photo-sharing platform into a serious business paves the way for the other acquisitions of Facebook such as WhatsApp and Oculus VR to generate revenues. It also sets the direction for the social network giant to monetize its Messenger app.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg previously stated that he would wait until WhatsApp and Messenger reached one billion users before accelerating its money-making efforts.
Last week, WhatsApp announced that it has already 900 million monthly active users. There is a possibility that Facebook is now working on ways to generate revenues from the global messaging service.
Global expansion remains a priority for Instagram
According to Instagram, more 70% of its users are located outside the United Sates, and global expansion will remain its priority. By the end of the month, Instagram ads will be available in more than 200 countries worldwide.
The management of the video and photo-sharing platform sees strong demands in travel, e-commerce, and entertainment categories. Instagram also added a new advertising format called Marquee, which allows companies to reach a huge number of users for their time-sensitive advertisements such as movie premieres.
“We will continue to improve the feedback mechanisms within Instagram to give people greater control and improve the relevance of the ads they see,” according to Instagram.
