Instagram’s meteoric rise to success was one of the major social media stories in the 2010s, but user growth may finally be slowing, according to new data from eMarketer.
The numbers of users signing up to the visual-focused platform, Instagram, rose by 6.7% last year, which is a sharp drop from the 10.1% growth recorded in 2018.
Unfortunately, it looks like that downward trend will continue for the foreseeable future after eMarketer warned of slower growth than previously anticipated.
“Growth will be at 4.5% in 2020, revised down from 5.4%, and in 2021, it will be 3.2% instead of 4.1%,” eMarketer noted.
Instagram has always been a big hit with Millennials and Gen Z, but eMarketer believes that this skew towards youthful users does have its drawbacks.
It noted that the slower growth is due in part to older age groups not making the move to the platform, which stands in stark contrast to how Facebook developed over time.
Instagram also has more competition, with new video-sharing service TikTok now a prime network for content consumption for teenagers.
Older Millennials are sticking around though and Instagram has actually seen better-than-expected gains in the 25-34-year-old age range during the last 12 months.
While that trend will not arrest the growth decline entirely, Instagram is still the second-most popular social media site overall.
Its ad revenue also remains strong and is expected to generate $13.86bn in 2020 as new ad formats pave the way for a 46.6% spike in returns.
