Instagram Passes Twitter with 300 Million Users

Instagram now has officially more users than Twitter, reports Today Online, as the number of users of the photo-sharing application reach the 300-million mark.

Facebook-owned Instagram announced Wednesday that their number of active monthly users had risen from 200 million in March this year, to 300 million this month, and that doesn't count the spammer accounts. By contrast, there are around 284 million active Twitter users  since October this year.

"We're proud to announce that there are now more than 300 million Instagrammers. Over the past four years, what began as two friends with a dream has grown into a global community that shares more than 70 million photos and videos each day," writes Kevin Systrom, Instagram CEO, on their official blog.

Systrom added that Instagram will now be using verified badges for athletes, celebrities, and brands, which makes it easier for users to identify which accounts are really the person or company they claim to be.

"As Instagram gets bigger, we're focused on helping you discover photos and videos from people who you care about, whether it's a friend or your favorite musician," Systrom says. "People ask, 'When it comes to public figures and brands, how do I know that the people I discover on Instagram are really who they say they are?'"

Instagram also announced that it will continuing its fight against spammer accounts, said an ABC Action News article.

"We've been deactivating spammy accounts from Instagram on an ongoing basis to improve your experience. As part of this effort, we will be deleting these accounts forever, so they will no longer be included in follower counts," Kevin Systrom said.

For his part, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams says in a Fortune interview, "I frankly don't give a shit if Instagram has more people looking at pretty pictures."

"It's a question of breadth versus depth. Why is users the only thing we talk about? The crazy thing: Facebook has done an amazing job of establishing that as the metric for Wall Street. If you think about the impact Twitter has on the world versus Instagram, it's pretty significant."

"Twitter is what we wanted it to be. It's this real-time information network... important stuff breaks on Twitter and world leaders have conversations on Twitter," he added.