Expect more ads on Instagram.
The photo-sharing company, which is owned by Facebook, is expanding advertising on the site, making its tools available to businesses worldwide and launching 30-second video ads.
Italy, Spain and South Korea are just some of the more than 30 new countries that can now use Instagram to promote their products and the company said that it will be making the tools available worldwide on Sept. 30.
Businesses of all sizes have been testing these new capabilities this summer with positive results, and we re seeing significant demand, particularly in areas like e-commerce, travel, entertainment and retail, Instagram said in a blog post about the topic on Tuesday night.
Instagram, which started testing ads about two years ago and is known for its filtered square photos, recently allowed users to post photos in a portrait or landscape format — a feature that has also allowed it to ramp up advertising on the site.
Landscape photos and video, the company wrote in the blog post, can give ads a more cinematic feel.
Instagram is expected to rake in $600 million in advertising dollars this year worldwide, making up 5 percent of Facebook s ad revenue, according to the market research company eMarketer.
In 2016, Instagram will reach $1.4 billion in ad sales and then grow to $2.8 billion in 2017, eMarketer forecasts.
Instagram has about 300 million users.
Photo Credit: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images
