Advertisements are everywhere, and ad-supported products are quickly becoming a norm, rather than an exception. And since it's becoming a common thing on the internet, ads will show in places where people are not expecting.
After months of saying it would experiment with advertising on its app, Instagram, the online photo-sharing, video-sharing and social networking service with digital filters, announced on October 3rd that it will begin to show ads in its iOS and Android apps, starting with users in the U.S..
People will notice the "occasional ad," Instagram said.
"Seeing photos and videos from brands you don't follow will be new, so we'll start slow," Instagram said in a blog post on the change. "We'll focus on delivering a small number of beautiful, high-quality photos and videos from a handful of brands that are already great members of the Instagram community."
Instagram framed the move as part of an effort to turn itself into a "sustainable business." Just like what Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom stated: Instagram must "fund its own future."
According to analysts, Facebook was the one behind the ads for Instagram. When the social network giant acquired Instagram on April 2012 for $1 billion dollars in cash and stock, Facebook actually paid less, because its shares decline sharply. And the purpose for this is also because since acquired, Instagram has never made a profit, although its user base has grown massively from 30 million to 150 million.
The company has been a favorite among consumers but has long left analysts wondering how it could turn enthusiasm among photographers into a business model. the adoption of an ad-supported business model has been inevitable for a while.
Adding video to Instagram feeds earlier this year was not only a way to compete with Vine, it also created a way to sell video advertising that fetches much higher rates than online display ads do. Still, the company is stepping carefully.
The introduction of advertising to Instagram was anything if not inevitable, considering that its parent company Facebook is one of the biggest modern ad-driven companies. But given the nature of the Instagram, advertising will be far more disruptive than it is on Facebook, which is already comprised of a variety of post types, sizes and formats.
It has been nine months since Instagram began laying the groundwork for advertising by rolling out a new terms of service agreement. That move led to a massive internet-wide freakout. The change, though expected, will be a radical one for users that use Instagram's iOS and Android applications on a monthly basis.
To make things easier for users, Systrom quickly clarified that annexing users' content was not part of the plan. "As always, you own your own photos and videos. The introduction of advertising won't change this." This statement is to ensure that photos and videos uploaded are always owned by its owners and will not be sold to any third-parties or advertisers.
Instagram, for its part, is promising magazine-quality ads that "feel as natural to Instagram as the photos and videos many of you already enjoy from your favorite brands."
The advertising will be part of the core experience, or what is called native advertising. Brands and companies should pay for their "high-quality photos and videos" to appear in users' feed. Similar to Facebook, users will be able to hide an ad they don't like or isn't relevant to them.
Twitter's success with promoted tweets shows that a few carefully placed ads won't ruin a social media site. But Instagram isn't necessarily looking to do what Twitter did. The choice of a magazine as a model is not a coincidence. No one complains about advertisements in magazine; some actually buy the things just to look at the ads.