When Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion in April 2012, the price tag came as a shock to many.<\/p>\n
A little more than two years later, Citigroup said Instagram is worth $35 billion, a number that the bank called “conservative” in a research note on Facebook issued Friday.<\/p>\n
It is another piece of good news in what has been a stellar 2014 for Instagram.<\/p>\n
The photo-sharing app recently hit 300 million active users, putting it ahead of Twitter. At $35 billion, Instagram would also be worth more than Twitter, which currently has a market cap around $23.3 billion.<\/p>\n
Citi’s analysts added, however, that the valuation is speculative and dependent on efforts to generate more money from the app.<\/p>\n
“While Instagram is still early in monetizing its audience and data assets, and its financial contribution to [Facebook] is minimal today, we believe that it is quickly gaining monetization traction, and would contribute more than $2bn in high-margin revenue at current user and engagement levels if fully monetized,” Citi analysts wrote in the note.<\/p>\n
Facebook has not been in a rush to fully monetize Instagram, rolling out its first ads in late 2013, and recently adding video ads.<\/p>\n
While Facebook has not disclosed how much money Instagram is generating, Citi’s analysts said it could conceivably bring in $2.7 billion in 2015.<\/p>\n
A Forrester Research study found that users are far more engaged on Instagram than other social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter.<\/p>\n
Facebook has become a particularly frustrating platform for marketers, as the site has scaled back how much reach brands can have on the site’s News Feed.<\/p>\n
Instagram’s success has led some, like tech investor Eric Jackson, to argue that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s move to buy the app “might be the best Internet acquisition ever.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source:\u00a0mashable.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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