Instagram launched a private messaging service today. It’s difficult to interpret the move as anything other than a response to the rise of SnapChat.
Earlier in the year, they had to make a similar move in response to Vine. The Google Trends data below show that Vine has proved more popular throughout 2013 than Instagram Video. Indeed, Instagram’s never caught up.
A note of caution: search trends obviously do not equal use so this data is only indicative. However, based on these proxy metrics, the indicators aren’t good.
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UPDATE
I should clarify that the search I ran on Google Trends referenced data from searches related specifically to online communities. Also, although Instagram Video is a more cumbersome term than just Instagram, a judgment call had to be made about the best way to identify data that relates to video, rather than Instagram as a whole. As such, this proxy may underestimate the popularity of Instagram Video to some degree. Alternative terms would drastically overstate it.