Photo-sharing app Instagram has revealed that it will begin to show ads in the news feeds of its UK users, after adding them to the streams of US users last year.
The service is owned by social networking site Facebook, and this move is part of its plans to transform the image tool into a feasible and successful business.
As of this month, Instagram’s UK user base will begin to notice the appearance of sponsored photos and videos from a number of large brands including Channel 4, Waitrose, Cadbury and Starbucks. These posts will appear in the main news feed and will be clearly labelled as a sponsored post. They will be integrated into the service to appear in the same way as other posts with which users interact.
The company has said that these ads will be engaging to the public, as well as of a high quality. However, if a user comes across an ad that they do not like, they will have the ability to hide it from their stream and provide feedback.
A leading marketing agency has also informed news providers that UK social network advertising totalled over £500 million in 2013, and this figure is expected to rise by more than 50% to £760 million this year.
Instagram has more than 200 million active users and it is believed that 65% of them are outside of its native United States, with the UK ranking in the top five most popular locations for the service.
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