Why doesn’t Facebook reveal Instagram users?
Ten years after its launch, the owner of Instagram, Facebook, still does not reveal the number of users or how much the photo sharing app earns the group of Mark Zuckerberg
Instagram turned 10 and celebrated with new products and features (like the TikTok Reels -like).
The company, owned by the Facebook group, also sent a note to the media with some celebratory statistics, but two numbers are missing from the report. How many users does Instagram have? And how many earnings does it bring to the parent company Facebook Inc.? As Bloomberg journalist Sarah Frier noted.
"When I asked, Instagram refused to comment."
As Bloomberg points out, the size of Instagram is an edgy issue right now as the tech giant founded by Mark Zuckerberg is attracting more government scrutiny.
Indeed, on Tuesday, the Justice Commission of the US Congress released its final report after 16 months of investigations into big tech. Congress pointed out that Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google have become de facto monopolists in the reference markets. The document calls for an update of the antitrust rules and opens the possibility of a fragmentation of Big Tech.
All the details.
WHY FACEBOOK REJECTS THE ANTITRUST CHECK ON THE ACQUISITION OF THE PHOTO SHARING APP
As Bloomberg recalls, in anticipation of the U.S. Congressional antitrust report, Facebook declined to provide more information about the Instagram acquisition.
HOW MUCH INSTAGRAM MAKES DAD ZUCKERBERG EARN
Surely Zuckerberg had seen it right. When Facebook's dad paid $ 715 million for Instagram in 2012, it seems he already knew that it would do him well in the near future. According to anonymous sources cited by Bloomberg in February , the photo-sharing app brought about $ 20 billion in ad revenue in 2019 to the Menlo Park group.
That is, more than a quarter of Facebook's total revenue in 2019 (about $ 70 billion). Facebook declined to comment on the data.
In fact, so far, as we said, Mark Zuckerberg's company has never communicated Instagram revenue or updated the user count (over one billion) after 2018.
HOW INSTAGRAM GROWS
As Facebook's growth after nearly two decades in business continues to slow, Instagram has become increasingly central to the future of Zuckerberg's group.
And the revelation of 20 billion in advertising revenue in 2019 is a clear demonstration of this.
"Facebook transformed Instagram from a niche photo-sharing app without monetization plans into the phenomenal success story it is today." The Menlo Park group said. Emphasizing “that it would never have become one without Facebook's investment of time, resources and know-how”.
ZUCKERBERG WANTS TO INTEGRATE ALL THE GROUP'S APPS
Now, though, Facebook wants to erase any app distinction in regulators' minds, according to Bloomberg . "If the government viewed Instagram as a separate product, it might think it was possible to detach it from its parent, which would be Facebook's worst-case scenario."
Precisely for this reason the technological giant is accelerating the process of integrating apps (Instagram, Messenger, Facebook and WhatsApp).
Meanwhile, in mid-August, Facebook decided to unify the Messenger and Instagram chats and announced it, as reported by The Verge , directly to social media users, through a notice received via app (for both Android and iOs) of "a new way to send messages ”, which will allow Instagram users to chat and stay in touch even with those who use Facebook. Zuckemberg's plan also provides for the integration of the 2 chats with that of Whatsapp.
AVOID "BREAKAGE"
Meanwhile, Facebook says breaking up the company would be next to impossible, due to all the work already done to connect apps.
The decision to combine messaging services matched the antitrust storm that has engulfed Facebook for the past two years.
After reaching an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission on a $ 5 billion fine for privacy violations in the Cambridge Analytica case, Facebook, along with other big techs, is at the center of a US Department of Justice investigation for potential antitrust violations . As Bloomberg reports, some critics, including Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, have said the integration plan will have the effect of making the company more technically difficult to dissolve.
Instagram's sizable contribution to the company's overall sales is certainly a deciding factor in Facebook's dominance.
However, Facebook has made it clear that it wants regulators to focus on all the benefits it brings to Instagram. But as Sarah Frier points out on Bloomberg, “it's also important to look at the benefits Instagram brings to Facebook. If regulators are really trying to understand the impact of a one-man majority-controlled company that owns two of the world's most powerful social networks, they should know the numbers. "
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/instagram-compie-10-anni-ma-perche-facebook-non-rivela-i-suoi-utenti/ on Sat, 10 Oct 2020 05:50:58 +0000.