Instagram to introduce adverts in the next year

Loose plans are in place to start monetising popular photo-sharing site Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook last year for a reported $750 million.

After announcing it had reached an impressive 150 million monthly active users earlier this week, a huge increase from the 30 million it boasted in April 2012 when Facebook first revealed it would be acquiring the site, bosses at Instagram have obviously decided the time it right to start making more of a profit out of the advert-free photo site.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal last week, Instagram’s director of business operations, Emily White, discussed the very real possibility of introducing ads to the site in the not-too-distant future, saying: “We want to make money in the long term, but we don’t have any short-term pressure.”

As reported by Mashable, Facebook’s cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg also hinted at the news during company’s second quarter earnings call in July, saying: “Kevin [Systrom – the co-founder of Instagram] has always been clear that we’re building Instagram to be at business and that we expect that over time we’re going to generate a lot of profit from it and probably through advertising.”

Although the introduction of adverts on the site would always be a natural move for the site, dedicated users may become disgruntled at the thought of their photo-viewing time being interrupted with ads.

Despite this, the news may present an excellent opportunity for businesses looking to target young, social-media following audiences with their products, as many look to invest more in social media advertising as the popularity of sites such as Instagram continue to grow.

UPDATE 04/10/2013 – Instagram confirmed in a blog last night that it is to introducing ‘engaging, high-quality ads’ in the next couple of months.