AfterDawn: News

Instagram is no longer ad-free

As of Friday, popular photo and video-sharing site Instagram is no longer ad-free.

The first official ad (sponsored photo) is from Michael Kors brand, and the picture of a watch saw over 250,000 likes in its first day.



Facebook (owners of Instagram) had an extended preview period allowing the 150 million users of the service to acclimate to seeing occasional ads in their feeds.

All future ads will include the label "sponsored" so users can differentiate and users can hide the ads if they don't care for the content. Eventually that will lead to better product targeting.

Facebook purchased Instagram for $1 billion last year, and the company has been careful in their efforts to begin monetizing the service.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 2 Nov 2013 13:16

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• 4 comments

• Bozobub

  I know it's cynical, but I'd bet $100 99% of those "likes" were generated by Instagram, itself. =p

  2.11.2013 14:34 #1

• GryphB

  Quote:All future ads will include the label "sponsored" so users can differentiate and users can hide the ads if they don't care for the content. Eventually that will lead to better product targeting. No, it's more like we hide your ads because we don't want to see them regardless of what you think we are wanting from advertisers. This is why adblock plus, ghostery, and many other plugins were invented.

  2.11.2013 20:17 #2

• Bozobub

  Heh. Yeah, the only ads I ever care to see are for movies - lol.

  2.11.2013 20:38 #3

• rrmk37

  Just another stupid site to watch people wast their time on and have a phone stuck to their face ...
  

  2.11.2013 21:20 #4