How does Instagram make money from teenagers?

To help me understand more about Instagram, a very popular form of Social media product, I investigated how Instagram makes money and how teenagers contribute to make it even more valuable.  I approached it using both Survey and searching Google. 

To find out what my friends and neighbors knew about Instagram I developed a very simple survey that included just one question.   ‘How do you think Instagram makes money?’.  I got a wide variety of answers, however, the strongest responses included, “Businesses pay Instagram to promote their products (ie advertising)”, “I think they make money through Instagram stars gaining a large following and the sponsorship from different brands to promote products to their followers”, “Through advertising and it gets investment from Facebook”. 

I was already aware that Facebook had purchased Instagram in 2012 and paid $1 billion dollars.  This purchase let people know that Facebook understood the market and the future of this form of social media.

So, how does Instagram make money and how exactly do teenagers contribute to this revenue?  In 2011, an article on the Tech Insider website said that Instagram didn’t really have a mechanism to get revenue.  At the time people thought they could charge people to join Instagram.  However, Instagram just wanted to grow its following and then work out how to make money.  Instagram was only 8 months old and it had 5 million followers.  Now, in 2018 Instagram has several ways of making money but it is generally through advertising.  Companies pay for their advertising to appear in the Instagram feed.  Companies don’t even need to have an Instagram account but can place their ads on Facebook and also have them appear on Instagram.  Instagram also wants to model Snapchat and has the format to have short films. 

How do teenagers make Instagram more valuable?  

Turns out for teens, Instagram is much more than a medium to share photos on, it’s an extension of their identities. That brings me to my next point about how teens contribute to making Instagram more valuable. Everyone knows that the key to successful marketing is understanding your audience. Teenagers like the Instagram format and they are constantly on this app. It allows Instagram to understand what trends there are at present and perhaps test new trends. Instagram is also a good platform to launch into Instagram stardom. People but mostly teenagers, have become stars on Instagram. Once they become stars it enables them to promote products for other companies and in this way it is a very strong format of marketing to teenagers. Instagram also searches people’s profiles such as yours and mine in each country so that they can understand what interests teenagers in each different country. They use this information to assist with sponsored advertising. A good example of how Instagram makes its money is through algorithms. They are able to see what teenagers are searching for on google and other formats. In my case I recently searched for Supreme Phone cases on Google. Shortly after this I went to Instagram and on my feed there was advertising for Supreme phone cases which I had never seen before, with a link to a site that sells the cases. In some ways this feels a little intrusive that these companies are able to find out so much about me so quickly.

In conclusion Instagram was a format that initially had no way of making income.  Now, following the sale to Facebook it has multiple ways of making money, particularly though the use by teenagers and through advertising that is targeted at teenagers.  Facebook is able to identify all the searches that teenagers undertake on other formats and target advertising.   Instagram continues to grow.  It is not only teenagers who like this format but business, adults and Wannabe Instagram stars.  It continues to grow as a social media platform.  I’m guessing that the 1 billion dollars that bought Instagram for now seems pretty cheap. 

The sources I used: 

https://www.quora.com/How-does-Instagram-make-money 

https://www.feedough.com/how-does-instagram-make-money-instagram-revenue-model/ 

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/300290 

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/how-teens-use-instagram-2014-6?r=US&IR=T 

https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-instagram-3486316 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instagram 

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/may/12/what-is-instagram-actually-for-these-days-is-it-any-good 

By Lucy Reburn  

  

How does social media maintain or be helpful to keep up overseas friendships?

My survey is about how social media maintains or is helpful to keep up overseas friendships. It is helpful to connect and know what is happening with your friends and family in Samoa, or other countries. 

Some of my interviewees think that social media is very helpful and important in the world.

Ina ia mafai ai ona iai se lua fesoataiga vava lalata ma se tagata e pei ole faigauo,aiga,faamasaniga ma nisi mea faapena....
It enables you to have a close relationship with people such as friends, family, acquaintances, and so on ....

I totonu o samoa o nisi o tagata e iai o latou mafaufau e faapea ole alafeso’otai poo ole social media e leaga lea ao isi tagata e fai mai latou ole isi lea mea e aoga tele ma fesoasoani tele I totonu ole atunuu e ala lea I le feso’otai ma o latou aiga o nonofo I atunuu mamao....
Some people think that social media is bad and other people claim it to be the most valuable and helpful thing in the country, especially in connection with their families living abroad...

I lou mafaufau ai i lea mataupu poo ole autuu ole alafeso’otai poo le social media I se faigauo po o ni mea e tatau lea I totonu o aiga o ala feso’otai (social media) e aoga ma e taua ao tagata e fa’aoga e leo latou fa’aoga tataua ona o nisi tulaga.....
When you think of this issue or topic, in a friendship or in the family environment, social media should be useful and important... 

O nisi itu e popole ai matua ma isi tagata I le ala feso’otai poo ole social media o le tulaga lea ile itu ole tupulaga lea ua fai mai ile nei vaitaimi..

Aspects of concern about social media for parents and others are some situations for teenagers.

What is my opinion about my chosen topic? 

I think it was a good question for all of us to learn and to understand more about social media. 

Social media is another way to help people to connect with each other and to 'visit' family and friends staying in other country.... Many people use Facebook. 

It is easy and quick to communicate with family and friends and also students' knowledge is rapidly increasing and some can more quickly find a future job or career.

If you’ve been friends with the person that you keep in touch with through using social media, that’s good because social media can maintain your friendships. Things are way better because you can keep up to date with her/him. 

However, someone that you just met that you never knew, might be a fake....

Why is social media important? Saru, Tamaki

Why is Social Media important?

                                                                   　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Saru & Tamaki

The amount of time we spend on social media is still increasing. This means, we are focusing more of our attention on social media. Nowadays, 81% of online Kiwis use YouTube, 79% use Facebook and 46% use Instagram. We asked why social media is so popular because we cannot find people who don’t use it. We think there are five reasons.

1.     It would be hard for some people who don’t use social media.

 To talk to someone face-to-face is very difficult for some people. My sister is so shy that she is not good at talking to someone at all. She has only a few friends in reality. But, she has so many friends she connects with online, using social media. According to her, all of her friends in social media have the same worry. They are also not good at talking to someone. I was surprised that she looks so happy when she talks about them. I think it’s not all good for her, but it probably makes her spirit better so I wouldn’t prohibit her from using social media. Do you have any experiences to share like this?

　

　　　

  

                                                                                                                                                                  2.    This is very useful as a communication tool.                                                                           

 Social media provides something we couldn't exist without.  Group chat. Certainly, we could talk as a group using e-mail, but we can connect more easily when we use social media. We can recognize sooner “when who said what” if we see our device. If we talk on e-mail, we have to open each e-mail when we want to see contents in it. This system helped me a lot when I had to do group work because we can chat anytime when we cannot meet. It makes the work very efficient. We can see our chat in balloon, so I didn’t need to open a lot of e-mails like I did before. We think this system is very helpful.  

3.     “Follow” and “like” makes people happy.

 If someone follows us or likes our post we feel so happy. There was a singer and my friend is a fan of him and when he followed her she was so happy that she couldn't control herself and she told our friends. If some famous people like or comment on our picture we get so happy because fans are always like that. If they follow us or like our photo we can see that.

4.     Social media is easy nowadays; you can talk to each other no matter where you are and you can see them as well.

 If there is wi-fi you can connect, you can contact someone anywhere on social media. Sending a message, sending a photo, calling, video calling…you can do everything. I mentioned above, it made a lot of progress as a communication tool. And we can talk easily if you want to talk to someone you haven’t met. I have talked with someone I haven’t met on social media. She was much older than me and very clever. If we didn’t use social media, I wouldn’t be concerned with her… We can make many friends in social media we can trust. We think almost everyone has the same experience. We can get along with anyone around the world nowadays.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Cyberbullying - Charlotte Lily and Lili

Cyberbullying. Most of us have gone through it at some point. It is the act of harassing someone online by sending or posting harmful messages, usually anonymously. Cyberbullying has become such a big, and sadly, normal, part of our lives as social media becomes more popular with teenagers. So, we asked some teens and teachers here at NCG about this issue.

What's the situation here at NCG?

Over the last one and a half years, 7 teachers (that we interviewed) at NCG have heard of or dealt with around 16 cases. 2 of these had face-to-face bullying involved in them. Yet, out of the 80 students we asked (on a survey), 30 of them have been cyberbullied. 

Telling people:

The reason why there is a difference in reported cases and non-reported cases is most likely because students don’t feel comfortable with telling someone, they don’t think they should/need to, or the bully has threatened them somehow. For example, if you tell someone (parent, teacher or a friend) you are letting them in on your life and you might feel uncomfortable sharing your conversations with someone if you think you have fuelled the bully or if there is personal stuff mentioned. This is a big issue because it means that a lot of people suffer going through cyberbullying alone.

Where can I get help?

15 students out of 18 got help when they asked. There are many ways that these people got helped, ranging from talking to teachers and parents about it to friends telling the bully to "f**k off". 

There are many positives to asking for help with your cyberbully. There are helplines that you can call such as Lifeline (0800 543 354 (0800 LIFELINE) or free text 4357 (HELP)), Youth Help Line (0800 37 66 33) and many more. There are also your teachers, friends, family and school counsellors you can talk to.

Stats:

• 52% of women aged 18-19 have experienced cyberbullying compared with men of the same age group, 34.5% have experienced cyberbullying

Advice:

These bits of advice are from real students and teachers.

• Ask for help, someone out there will help you even if you feel like no one will
• Try to tell someone even though it might be hard, they can help you
• Block them
• Get help and don't give up. You're stronger than them.

Messages to Cyberbullies:

• How did it make you feel to say those things about me? Did you achieve what you wanted?
• What's the point in making someone feel bad about themselves because you feel that way?
• Stop hiding behind a screen because I know you would not say that to my face
• Why did you feel like you had to make me feel completely insignificant and worthless when I had done nothing to you?

There are many cases of cyberbullying no matter where you go. If you, or one of your friends, are going through this, please seek help from one of the numbers above, a trusted adult or one of your friends. Although cyberbullying is a big thing, we can beat it together. And just know that

YOU ARE NOT ALONE!