Instagram Now Boasts Half A Billion Users

There are more than half of one billion users across the world that log on to

's fully owned Instagram app.

spoke with Instagram's management team, including Liz Perle who is the company's manager for emerging trends and youth culture. Instagram's management team told Variety that it now boasts more than 500 million monthly active users and 100 million of these users joined the social media platform in the past 9 months alone. In addition, more than 300 million users log on to their Instagram account every day. The company also said that over the past 6 months, aggregate time spent by users watching video increased 150 percent after the maximum video length from 15 seconds to 60 seconds this spring. "It's the year of video," Perle was quoted as saying. "I am seeing a lot of creators switching to video… In terms of emerging creators, there's a huge runway for them to reach new audiences." Meanwhile, Instagram's new 60-second video format makes the platform a valuable tool for scouting digital-native talent. On the other hand, Instagram still has a lot of catching up to do in terms of helping creators make money. Instagram, unlike YouTube, doesn't share ad revenue with its user base and has no plans to do so in the near-term.