Instagram Reveals Monthly Active User Data For First Time

The stats that matter are this: 90 million active monthly users, 40 million photos uploaded per day, and 10,000 “Likes” during peak time.

Instagram has released details of its user data for the first time. The photo-sharing site, which was bought by Facebook last year for $715 million, had last week stopped reporting its traffic numbers on AppData. So, what have we learnt? Despite the hoo-ha surrounding the firm after it decided to change its terms of service–rafts of people deserted the site, and it was forced to change tack over its proposals–Instagram is big business. After all, we knew it would be once we saw those Thanksgiving figures last year.

  • 90 million people use Instagram on a monthly basis.
  • Numbers increased by 10%, month on month, between December 2012 and January 2013.
  • A thousand comments are left each second.
  • 40 million photos are posted each day.
  • There are 8,500 likes per second, although this figure increases to 10,000 per second at peak times.

This is what Kevin Systrom had to say about the figures. “Instagram continues to see very strong growth around the world. With many of the product and internationalization improvements we’ve made, we’ve been excited to see these efforts resonate with users globally.”

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via Fast Company http://www.fastcompany.com/3004921/instagram-reveals-monthly-active-user-data-first-time?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+fastcompany%2Fheadlines+%28Fast+Company%29

Flu Shots Are Damn Dangerous

The flu shot can cause fever, aches, fatigue, increased risk of seizure in children, and more. By Deirdre Imus.

via The Daily Beast – Latest Articles http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/18/flu-shots-are-damn-dangerous.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedailybeast%2Farticles+%28The+Daily+Beast+-+Latest+Articles%29

Get Your Damn Flu Shot

Enough with the truther nonsense—vaccines won’t kill you or give your kid autism.

via The Daily Beast – Latest Articles http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/18/get-your-damn-flu-shot.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedailybeast%2Farticles+%28The+Daily+Beast+-+Latest+Articles%29

How Mini-Cliffs Could Ruin Obama’s Second Term

Eight and a half minutes into the final press conference of his first term, President Obama hadn’t talked about anything but reducing budget deficits and the national debt, and increasing the federal borrowing authority. He taunted Republicans—“Turns out, the American people agree with me”—and recycled campaign rhetoric, invoked troops’ paychecks as potential casualties of default, and looked to define the debt-ceiling boost in the White House’s preferred terms: “It simply allows the country to pay for spending that Congress has already committed to.”

Only near the end of his opening remarks did Obama turn to the issues that Democrats hope will mark his second term: energy, immigration, and gun control. If Republicans have their way, the pattern will hold and Obama will be deprived of a meaningful second-term legacy on domestic issues beyond a series of economic rescue missions.

Washington needs no reminder of how big-casino fiscal negotiations can crowd out the rest of a policy agenda. If congressional Republicans hold their ground, they could force a series of “mini-cliffs”—short-term borrowing-authority extensions or continuing budget resolutions that expire every two or three months. The GOP could use budgetary hostage-taking as a reasonable strategic replacement for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s original goal for Obama’s first term: keep him from having a second.

via Homepage http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/how-mini-cliffs-could-ruin-obama-s-second-term-20130117

For Republicans, Just Doing the Math is Frightening

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is preparing a push for an immigration-reform proposal that promises to be the first real test of whether Republicans have learned a lesson from the Nov. 6 election results. GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and congressional Republicans won the white vote by numbers normally seen in landslide victories, and they also won independents by 5 and 7 percentage points, respectively. But Romney lost the election nationally by almost 4 points, and the GOP lost the overall popular vote for the House of Representatives. Although winning big among white voters and carrying the independent vote is necessary for GOP victories nationally, it’s no longer sufficient to win.

The white share of the vote in presidential elections has dropped 15 points over the past six elections, from 87 percent in 1992 to 72 percent in 2012. This trend has little to do with Barack Obama, the nation’s first African-American president. The declines from one presidential election to the next have been consistent: a 4-point drop from 1992 to 1996, 2 more points in 2000, 4 additional points in 2004, 3 points in 2008, and 2 points last year.

At the same time, the Republican share of the minority vote is getting grisly. Among the 13 percent of voters who are black, Obama won by 87 percentage points, 93 percent to 6 percent, while congressional Democrats won by 78 points, 91 percent to 13 percent. Latinos made up 10 percent of last year’s electorate and gave the president a 44-point edge, 71 percent to 27 percent, while congressional Democrats had a 38-point advantage, 68 percent to 30 percent. The Asian-American vote—3 percent of the electorate and now the fastest-growing ethnic group—sided with Obama by 47 points, 73 percent to 26 percent; congressional Democrats won by a 1-point-wider margin, 73 percent to 25 percent.

via Homepage http://www.nationaljournal.com/columns/cook-report/for-republicans-just-doing-the-math-is-frightening-20130117

‘@elspethrb continues to be the best writer on the Internets on guns and popular culture: http://t.co/CaohbiBC

@elspethrb continues to be the best writer on the Internets on guns and popular culture: http://t.co/CaohbiBC

via Gabriel Snyder’s Stellar faves http://twitter.com/GrahamDavidA/status/291967376256282625

@hblodget Where do people use them? No more mobile than laptops.

@hblodget Where do people use them? No more mobile than laptops.

via Gabriel Snyder’s Stellar faves http://twitter.com/jyarow/status/291928717708640257

Algerian forces attack gas plant held by Islamic militants, killing more than 30 hostages, 15 captors: reports

Many people were killed when Algerian forces opened fire on a vehicle at a remote gas plant where gunmen were holding dozens of Western hostages, a resident of the locality and Arab news reports said on Thursday.

via NYDN Rss Article only http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/hostages-daring-escape-islamic-militants-algerian-gas-plant-article-1.1241698?localLinksEnabled=false&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nydnrss%2Fgossip%2Frush_molloy+%28Gossip%2FRush+%26+Molloy%29

Robert Stone to Publish First Novel in Decade

Mr. Stone is the author of “Damascus Gate” and “Dog Soldiers,” which won the National Book Award in 1975.

via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/17/robert-stone-to-publish-first-novel-in-decade/

Winfrey’s Armstrong interview comes at key time for OWN

Winfrey outmaneuvered bigger networks to land the interview with the disgraced cyclist. Her network, which averages just 329,000 viewers a night, needs more of what her staff calls the ‘Oprah DNA.’

Lance Armstrong will face millions of Oprah Winfrey fans Thursday night in a play to restore his tarnished image.

via L.A. Times – Entertainment News http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ct-oprah-network-20130117,0,4873923.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fentertainment+%28Entertainment+News%29