Instagram’s Snapchat Clone Is A 100M Resounding Success, Stealing Does Pay

Back in August, Instagram announced “Instagram Stories,” which the social media app directly admitted was a clone of “Snapchat Stories.” Two months have passed since and it would seem that Instagram has a huge hit on its hands. Right now, the feature has over 100 million daily users, which is a huge number considering that “Instagram Stories” is basically a copy of another popular social media app.

Much like Snapchat’s “Stories” service, users upload pictures or videos on “Instagram Stories” to share with friends and followers, and they will disappear after 24 hours. This feature apparently proved appealing enough that it got a fifth of Instagram’s users on its main platform in just two months, CNET reports.

Those numbers came from Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom himself. Overall, Instagram has over 500 million daily users, which the social media platform had to build throughout the 6 years since its inception. To get 100 million users for “Instagram Stories” is therefore considered a huge achievement.

This development is considered surprising by many as well. When Instagram decided to steal the idea from Snapchat and make it their own two months ago, they didn’t exactly make it a secret. Many thought that the admission and the fact that “Instagram Stories” was a copy would hurt its numbers. Apparently, this is not the case.

In fact, it had the opposite effect, Tech Times notes. Instagram also continues to defend its decision to copy Snapchat, saying that its employees believe in “ephemerality.”

Supposedly, Instagram wasn’t just reacting to what was cool at the time it decided to copy the key feature of another platform. The social media company also explained that it was just doing what it felt was good for its users. Pointing to its clear success in the area, Systrom said that their method is clearly working.