Facebook’s US$1b Instagram goldmine

NEW YORK: Adding advertising to the Explore tab in Instagram could be worth US$1 billion (RM4.15 billion) in revenue for Facebook Inc by 2021, according to Morgan Stanley analysts. New advertising will appear when users on the photo-sharing social network tap Explore posts and scroll to see related content, with the main grid to remain ad-free. The move “speaks to how Facebook continues to find ways to extend its earnings runway by monetising under-monetised engagement and usage,” says analyst Brian Nowak.