Instagram has not yet started making money from advertising (or information from its users) but the predictions are very encouraging for Mark Zuckerberg and his team. According to the multinational in the banking industry “Citigroup”, Instagram is now worth 35 billion dollars! (a value greater than the GDP of some countries)
This assessment was made based on the estimate of future results that Instagram can bring. According to the report of the Citigroup, Instagram is getting advertiser support and could generate “up to 2 billions of dollars of revenue, with the current user and engagement number if fully monetized".
To be more specific: this figure of 35 billion dollars was obtained with the forecast of 420 millions of active users per month until the end of 2015, an average of 12,6 views of the news feed per day, and an estimate of U.S. dollar 1,48 in revenue per thousand views.
According to this report, 2015 will be the year that Facebook will start making money with Instagram and WhatsApp, the millionaire acquisitions. Then we can confirm if the investment was worth it.
[Source]: Forbes
