In the News – November 6, 2012 – [LINK]
Instagram Rolls Out Web Profiles
Instagram began launching web profiles on Monday, according to Mashable. Facebook has wasted no time in their attempt to knock some of the steam out of Pinterest. In our August 10 “Stat of the Week”, we shared how Pinterest is the 4th largest driver of retail web traffic and drives four times as much as Facebook. It appears as if Facebook is fighting back by leveraging their recent purchase of Instagram to gain some ground in the search arena. The fact that Instagram will have a web presence and is owned by Facebook certainly puts them on the map and in contention immediately. As mentioned in the Mashable article, Facebook and Instagram integration is sure to deepen which doesn’t bode well for Pinterest. It remains to be seen whether Instagram will have the SEO value that Pinterest currently does, but with 100 million registered users versus Pinterest’s 20 million (per Forbes, July 2012) Instagram certainly has a built in audience that position it to do so.
