Instagram has officially announced it is no longer going ad-free on Friday with a sponsored photo from Michael Kors.
The photo-sharing app acquired by Facebook for about $1 billion announced early October its plans of introducing advertisements in users' feed to generate revenue. However, it promised that the ads will be made "enjoyable and creative" and will be coming from selected brands that are already members of the Instagram community. The decision of welcoming ads in the site was made to secure the business.
A week after, it showed a sample preview of how the ads are going to look like and gave further details about the transition. The company promised to keep up the high quality of photos and videos in which users will not feel they are looking at regular ads. They will know that the photo or video is an ad if they see the "Sponsored" label beside the time stamp. Users can opt to hide the ads by simply tapping "…" then give feedback about it.
So as promised, Instagram decided to start with an NYC-based fashion brand Michael Kors featuring a watch from its Timeless collection. The ad will be visible even if you are not a follower of the brand. The photo itself now has over 212,000 likes yet different reactions.
Most of the comments on the photo say they are not happy seeing the ad on their feed. One comment compared Instagram to Facebook. "Looks like we've got another Facebook @deemary14"
After Michael Kors, CNET reports that additional ads from Adidas, Ben & Jerry's, Burberry, General Electric, Levi's, Lexus, Macy's, PayPal, and Starwood will be soon be seen by users.
Is Instagram really becoming like Facebook? The social networking site may have influenced the decision of introducing ads. A week ago, Facebook reported a better than expected revenue for the third quarter in which almost half of it was generated from advertisements.
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