Instagram turns 16, with 3 billion users amid privacy and mental health challenges

NEW YORK, October 5 /ATSH-AA/ – Instagram is marking the 16th anniversary of its launch and its transformation into a dominant force in the global digital economy, with over 3 billion monthly active users, but growing scrutiny over data privacy and young people’s mental health is casting a shadow over the platform’s success.

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger launched Instagram as a photo-sharing app on October 6, 2010. The platform was bought by Meta two years later for around 1 billion dollars, while the social media giant expanded further with the introduction of video sharing and direct messages in 2013 and of short Reels videos in 2020.

India has the largest number of the platform’s users, with 480 million active users, followed by the USA, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Turkey, Mexico, the United Kingdom, Germany and Argentina, according to Statista data for October 2025.

The platform is largely dominated by young people, with around 34 percent of users worldwide aged 25-34, while the 18-24 age group makes up 27.6 percent of users. Instagram gave a boost to the modern influencer economy, as profiles with large numbers of followers can exploit their reach to audiences on the app.

In-app shopping features, introduced in 2020, created an e-commerce showcase for big brands and independent entrepreneurs. At the same time, the platform is facing regulatory and legal pushback around the world, amid its commercial and social expansion.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) fined Instagram 405 million euros in 2022 for breaching EU rules protecting minors’ personal data. Around 41 US states sued Meta the following year over app features alleged to be addictive and to harm children’s mental health. The dispute led to a settlement in August this year.

The associate dean of the Business Faculty and professor of digital economy at Queen Mary University of London, Yasmin Ibrahim, told Anadolu that Instagram reshaped the relationship between visibility, social interaction and commerce, enabling users to turn their routines into tradable assets without needing high start-up costs.

The platform has also fostered a culture of comparison among its young users.

Ibrahim said the platform’s image-oriented structure makes users evaluate and compare their bodies, achievements and unedited realities with the curated and processed lives of strangers on the internet.