Instagram (Photo Wall) is a social application owned by Facebook that runs on mobile terminals. It allows users to share pictures taken at any time online in a fast, beautiful and interesting way. The application was released in October 2010, and its founders are Kevin Systrom and others. On October 25, 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram for a total of US$715 million. On December 10, 2015, Apple released the list of “Best Apps in the App Store” in 2015, and Instagram won the “Best iPhone 6s App”. On December 13, 2016, Instagram’s Live broadcast function was officially opened to all users in the United States. In December 2018, the World Brand Lab released the “2018 World’s Top 500 Brands” list, and Instagram ranked 362nd. According to the latest data from Statista (2020), Instagram has more than 1 billion active users per month, making it one of the most popular social networks in the world, which means that Instagram is equivalent to WeChat in China. As of October 2020, 33.1% of Instagram’s global audience is between the ages of 25 and 34. Overall, more than two-thirds of Instagram’s total audience is under the age of 34, which makes the platform particularly attractive to marketers.
The core of Instagram is high-quality images of “user-generated content” (UGC). Therefore, although Instagram has undergone years of product iteration and optimization, and has added popular features such as IGTV (Instagram video content channel), Instagram’s image-driven characteristics have never changed. The advantages of Instagram are reflected in the following points: First, it is mostly female and young groups, which can accurately radiate to target users; second, the label and exploration functions allow people without accounts to see its content, deepening the spread; third, it can chat and interact with fans online, greatly improving the interaction rate with fans.