Instagram opens its advertising doors

©bloomua via 123RF

Originally, advertising was sold to selected big brands that worked with Instagram on their campaigns, which were visually appealing and blended in with the artsy style of the app.

Instagram has been holding their advertiser's hands through this initial phase, but now the training wheels are off, and it'll be interesting to see how the "gramming" public will take to a new flow of advertising. Here's hoping it doesn't become cluttered from ads wishing users to buy products or download apps.

According to Mashable, Instagram boasted its ads are 2.8 times more effective than traditional online advertising, and eMarketer has forecasted that Instagram will see a mobile ad revenue of $2.8bn by 2017.

So far, the advertising option is only open to several countries outside the US: Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK.