Report: Instagram passes 50M users, gaining 5M a week

Popular photo sharing app Instagram has breached the 50-million user mark, and gaining some five million users per week, a tech site reported Tuesday. Mashable cited Instagram's API (application programming interface) indicating Instagram had hit 40 million users around April 13, and 30 million at the start of April. "This is astonishing growth for an app that started 2012 with just 15 million users," it said. Citing data from Gramfeed, Mashable said the 50 millionth Instagram user goes by the handle fox289. "All we know about the user is drawn from his or her profile picture: an FC Barcelona soccer shirt. Just how many accounts are like fox289 – with no photos posted, no users followed – is something Facebook will be very interested in," it said. Mashable noted the huge growth occurred after Instagram released an app for devices running Google's Android platform. In its first two years, Instagram had been only for iPhones, which run Apple's iOS operating system. On the other hand, Mashable noted Instagram also hit number one in the iOS App store for the first time in the wake of its $1-billion acquisition by Facebook. As for Google's Google Play marketplace, Mashable said Instagram crossed the 10-million download threshold two days ago, "so it’s a safe bet that roughly 40 million of those users are on the iPhone." "In other words, iPhone and Android have divided Instagram sign-ups fairly equally since it became available for both platforms," it said. — LBG, GMA News