Facebook-owned picture-sharing social network Instagram now has over 700 million active users and is on its way to joining the one billion user mark like the other main apps in the Facebook stable.
"We're thrilled to announce that our community has grown to more than 700 million Instagrammers," the company said in a statement. It also said the latest 100 million users joined faster than before.
The app was launched in 2010. Facebook acquired the company in 2012 for $1 billion, just before it reached 100 million users in 2013.
User numbers jumped 100 million every nine to 13 months until last year, when it reached 500 million in June. By the end of last year, it had 600 million users and four months later it hit 700 million.
The company said its recent fast growth can be attributed to the new features it has introduced. Controversially, Instagram decided to launch Instagram Stories last year, which was seen as a direct copy of a feature with the same name by rival Snapchat.
Earlier this month, Instagram announced it had more than 200 million daily active Stories users.
To coincide with the milestone, the company introduced more Snapchat-esque features, such as geolocation stickers that are only available in certain cities, and a 'hands-free' mode.
By comparison, rivals Snapchat has 161 million daily active users and Twitter has 328 million monthly active users.
The main Facebook app has 1.65 billion monthly active users. Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp both announced earlier this year they have a billion monthly active users.
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