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- Underlying Meta’s turnaround this year is deepening user engagement on Instagram.
- Average daily minutes per Instagram user has had positive QoQ growth since 4Q22 and increased sequentially QoQ in Q2 (+7% in Q1, +13% in Q2).
- Instagram leads peer Social apps in Average Daily Minutes growth in Q2, as time spent on TikTok flattens.
While media focuses on the declining engagement on Threads (Apptopia panel data shows Total Time Spent dropped of 86% prior to META earnings), the stock performance and Instagram mobile performance show META is nothing but resilient. Indeed, Zuckerberg stated in the earnings call “Reels continues to grow and drive incremental engagement.” We can see the impact of Reels on Instagram by observing the rising time spent per DAU.
META is clear on both its minimal investment in Threads and plan to build “retention hooks” to parlay Instagram engagement to Threads over time, as it did with Facebook Messenger.
Now, back to Instagram – the market is giving full credit to META on the improvements at Reels and its impact on Instagram. This demonstrates how important it is to understand app engagement beyond the trend in DAU. Including time spent and cohort analysis is critical for validating one’s thesis on social media companies. In another relevant example, SNAP had the second highest growth in Average Daily Minutes per user, which interestingly is from its ability to retain Older Users.
