Instagram announced last Thursday that they will be introducing advertisements into the social media medium. For the past three years, they have grown to over 150 million users and in order to keep a sustainable business in the US, an occasional ad will appear in your feed.

These will not be any ordinary ads, they will be beautifully, filtered ads that mesh well into your already established feed. Instagram is following in Facebook’s footsteps by capitalizing on mobile ads.  With Facebook’s mantra being, “Move fast and break things”, Instagram is taking the subtler approach. They will be following the “Vogue” gold standard of advertisements, meaning that these will be high quality, visually stunning photos and videos.  They want to make this transition natural, like flipping through a magazine.

A downside to these ads is that they will be brands and people you do not follow but the upside is Instagram is giving users the control.  If you see an ad you do not like, you can hide it. You will also be able to provide insight on why you decided to hide it. Instagram understands that this is a place where people can connect and be inspired so they do not want users to feel disgruntled by this change.  They want to keep building the Instagram everyone knows and loves and therefore will give the feedback they get serious consideration.

The CEO, Kevin Systrom, explained in an article posted on Racked.com, “It’s like living at home after college. There comes a time when you have to add to the pie.  If Instagram is going to become what I want it to become, then it has to do just that. It’s gotta grow up.”

No matter how beautiful these ads will be, they are still ads and how they are going to impact each users experience is hard to predict. What do you think about these Instagram changes, are they pointless or a valuable addition? Guess we will have to wait and see!

Sources: 1)http://racked.com/archives/2013/10/04/instagram-launched-ads-but-dont-worry-theyll-be-beautiful.php, 2)http://mashable.com/2013/10/04/poll-instagram-ads/, 3)http://blog.instagram.com