Instagram user base surges to 500 million

The user base of photo-sharing service Instagram has surged to half a billion, adding its latest 100 million in less than a year, the Facebook-owned application said Tuesday.

"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," a blog post said.

"Our community also continues to become even more global, with more than 80% living outside of the United States."

Instagram, which was acquired by Facebook in 2012, is now seen as growth engine for Facebook, which has some 1.6 billion users around the world. The visually oriented service has also been ramping up its advertising efforts, which could bring in more revenues for Facebook.

According to the research firm eMarketer, Instagram will pull in $1.53 billion in worldwide mobile ad revenue, a jump of 144% over last year.

Around 85% of that will come from the US market. According to eMarketer, Instagram will represent 8.4% of Facebook`s 2016 worldwide mobile ad revenue, and will rise to 18% by 2018.