More than 500 M people are hooked to Facebook stories; daily users grow to 1.56 B
Facebook’s daily active users grew to 1.56 billion, while its monthly active users hit 2.38 billion at the end of Q1, marking an eight percent year-over-year growth.
It’s just been two years since Facebook, following in the footsteps of Snapchat, introduced the ‘Story’ experience on its platform. And the ephemeral photo-video format has already gained an impressive momentum, hitting a record 500 million daily active user (DAU) base.
Not only on the main app and messenger, but across the other apps under the umbrella of the internet giant – Instagram, WhatsApp – the story experience is said to have gained a wide following, with more than half a billion daily active users.
The statistics were released following Facebook’s first quarter earnings report, which showed an increased engagement rate not only for its stories, but also on the overall platform.
According to a statement released by the company, Facebook’s daily active users grew by eight percent year-over-year to reach 1.56 billion DAUs for quarter ending March 2019, and its monthly active users hit 2.38 billion, increasing at eight percent year-over-year.
In addition, Facebook claimed that over 2.1 billion people now use its family of apps - Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger – every day on average. Another 2.7 billion people (approx.) use one of its services each month, the company said.
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“In the first quarter of 2019, we reasonably estimated a probable loss and recorded an accrual of $3.0 billion in connection with the inquiry of the FTC into our platform and user data practices,” the statement read.
“We estimate that the range of loss in this matter is between $3 billion to $5 billion. The matter remains unresolved, and there can be no assurance as to the timing or the terms of any final outcome.”
A number of data privacy-related controversies rocked the boat for Facebook last year. Despite all this, the quarterly earnings report proves that the company continues to grow and add to its user base and the popularity of its stories. In fact, Facebook is making optimal use of this high engagement rate to lure advertisers across its app ecosystem.
“We are helping advertisers keep up with the shift in how people are sharing – just as we did with mobile,” said Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg during the investors’ call. “We’re proud to announce that we now have three million advertisers using Stories Ads to reach customers across Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger.”