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Instagram adds 10 million users in 10 days

Riding a wave of publicity from its billion-dollar purchase by Facebook and after finally opening up to Android, the photo-sharing phenomenon jumps from 30 million to 40 million users.

Eric Mack Contributing Editor
Eric Mack has been a CNET contributor since 2011. Eric and his family live 100% energy and water independent on his off-grid compound in the New Mexico desert. Eric uses his passion for writing about energy, renewables, science and climate to bring educational content to life on topics around the solar panel and deregulated energy industries. Eric helps consumers by demystifying solar, battery, renewable energy, energy choice concepts, and also reviews solar installers. Previously, Eric covered space, science, climate change and all things futuristic. His encrypted email for tips is ericcmack@protonmail.com.
Expertise Solar, solar storage, space, science, climate change, deregulated energy, DIY solar panels, DIY off-grid life projects. CNET's "Living off the Grid" series. https://www.cnet.com/feature/home/energy-and-utilities/living-off-the-grid/ Credentials
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Eric Mack
Not all Instagram photos need a filter. Eric Mack/CNET

Not long after Instagram became available for Android after a long wait, I finally joined the photo-filtering and super-sharing social network last week. Yesterday, while snapping, cropping, and filtering away photos of our kids playing in a Brooklyn, N.Y., park, and at least partly because his curiosity had been piqued by the company's billion-dollar price tag, my brother-in-law finally downloaded Instagram to his iPhone.

It turns out that he and I were just two of 10 million.

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That's apparently how many Instagram users have been added in the last 10 days, jumping from a total of 30 million to 40 million. The milestone was first noted on Gramfeed, a Web site for navigating through the world of Instagram, which pulled user ID No. 40,000,000 from Instagram's API -- it's attached to a user named "valentinoelbuti."

If that rate of growth continues, we can surely expect a backlash against the flood of fancy photos. In fact, now could be the time to get in on the ground floor of the next great mobile gold mine -- "actual light" photo apps. How novel!