Technology
Instagram, the photo and video-sharing app owned by Meta, made more money from ads than YouTube in the last few years.
New court papers filed by Meta show that Instagram earned $32.4 billion from ads in 2021, which is more than YouTube's $28.8 billion in the same year.
In 2020, Instagram's ad revenue was $22 billion, while YouTube made $19.7 billion. In 2019, Instagram made $17.9 billion from ads, and YouTube earned $15.1 billion.
In 2018, it made $11.3 billion from ads. This number grew to $17.9 billion in 2019, $22 billion in 2020, $32.4 billion in 2021, and $16.5 billion in first six months of 2022.
Instagram's ad revenue was shared because Meta is trying to get judge to dismiss antitrust lawsuit against the company. It revealed how quickly app has grown since Meta bought it/
Under Adam Mosseri's leadership, Instagram has become a major source of income for Meta.