Early in 2012 news started to spread that Facebook was moving in to purchase the social image sharing service Instagram, and when that deal was finalised many questioned what was next for the partnership.
Well, after months of waiting for the deal to be finalised and then the inevitable fallout from other services (we are looking at you, Twitter), Facebook has now made a statement to Business Insider confirming that they will be looking to monetise Instagram in the future.
Facebook VP of Global Marketing Solutions, Carolyn Everson, said:
“Eventually we’ll figure out a way to monetize Instagram.” And then followed with “There are many brands that use Instagram right now to try to get a feel for how to engage with their followers. We will definitely be figuring out a monetization strategy.”
What this means is still unclear, as Instagram could be set to become a premium service or just take the route of the Facebook and making its money out of advertising and sponsored posts.
If this does happen then you can expect Instagram to get a makeover and to get some more business-orientated features so that advertisers can access the platform and add their own content.
With the Facebook and Instagram partnership still in the early stages of development there probably won’t be any changes made for a few months, so rest assured you can continue enjoying pictures of people’s food, dogs and new clothes advert-free for a while yet.