Ads, obviously.
replyI understand Meta has an ad business as well—but no one I know uses their sites.
Instagram makes ~$28/user/mo from ads, which is wild. They couldn't even sell a premium ad-free membership without losing money on those people. (Who the hell would pay $28/mo for instgram?)
replyI tried to verify that figure and I'm pretty sure you mean ~$28/user/year.
replyInstagram's global ad revenue ~$83.6B in 2025. [1]
Instagram passed 3 billion monthly active users in September 2025. [2]
$83.6B ÷ 3B ≈ $27.9 per user per year ≈ $2.30/month.
1: https://resourcera.com/data/social/instagram-revenue/
2: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/24/instagram-now-has-3-billion-...