Snapchat Accounts For More Photo Shares Than Instagram As Pic Sharing Set To Double In 2013

Photo uploading and sharing is growing at an incredible pace, according to data shared by KPCB’s Mary Meeker in the Internet Trends report she presented on stage at D11 today. Well over 500 million photos are shared per day on average so far in 2013, the report estimates, which is on pace to become a 2x increase by the end of 2013, compared to share volume in 2012.

Facebook still accounts for the lion’s share of social photo activity, according to data shared in one slide of the Internet Trends report, but its growth is being supplemented more and more by activity on Instagram, and, to a remarkable degree, on Snapchat. The Snapchat growth is especially surprising, as activity on the semi-private network has easily surpassed that of Instagram in the past two years, and looks on pace to at least double every two months based on past trends.

The rapid rise of Snapchat sharing is interesting not because of how frequently users seem to be using it, but because of how quickly it has eclipsed more public sharing like on Instagram. It even looks like its volume could surpass Facebook’s if the trend continues as it has been going. That’s going to present a problem for companies who depend on public sharing as a means of driving engagement, and therefore revenue, to their own networks. Facebook is the obvious target, as illustrated in slide #14 below.