Instagram Stories boasts impressive growth on first birthday
Instagram Stories, the Facebook-owned company's year-old photo sharing feature, counts more than 250 million daily users. Meanwhile, rival Snapchat attracts 166 million daily users. Additionally, Stories is used for 32 minutes each day by those under 25, and 24 minutes per day for over 25s, while Snapchat claims 30 minutes per day for under 25s and 20 minutes per day for over 25s. Since Instagram announced its daily usage outstripped its rival's, the share price for Snapchat's parent company, Snap, has dipped to an all-time low of $12.67. 

It might be hard to believe, but Instagram Stories is already turning one year old.

Instagram’s Snapchat clone hits its first anniversary today, and the Facebook-owned app has spent much of 2017 heavily investing in bringing vertical video and augmented reality filters to the format. As a result, Instagram is growing rapidly, adding 50 million daily users in just two months to hit 250 million daily users in June. In comparison, Snapchat’s own platform had just 166 million as of the first quarter of this year, according to the company’s most recent quarterly earnings.

When it first introduced Stories last year, Instagram was immediately accused of copying Snapchat as a way of siphoning its growing user base ahead of its inevitable IPO back in February.