Half a billion people now use Facebook-owned photo-sharing site

Popular photo-sharing platform, Instagram, on Tuesday reported a record 500 million monthly active users (MAU).

The platform enables its users to take pictures and videos, and share them either publicly or privately on the app, as well as through a variety of other social networking platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr.

In a blog post, the platform said, “Today, we’re excited to announce our community has grown to more than 500 million Instagrammers — more than 300 million of whom use Instagram every single day. Our community also continues to become even more global, with more than 80 percent living outside of the United States.

ALSO READ: Photo-sharing platform launches Business profiles feature

“As you’ve captured and shared the moments happening around you, you’ve formed incredibly varied and diverse communities. Whether you’re an illustrator, a sneakerhead or an astronaut on the International Space Station, every photo and video you share helps bring people closer to friends and interests, broadens perspectives and inspires a sense of wonder. You’ve made Instagram a place where the everyday and the epic are always within reach."

Instagram also said its (monthly) user base has more than doubled in size over the past two years. More than 80% of the Instagram community is outside the US. In the US alone, Instagram has more than 100 million monthly actives.

More than 95 million photos and videos are also shared per day, on average, the platform said. Instagram users give out 4.2 billion likes per day, on average, the Facebook-owned site said.