I know we have been talking about Instagram a lot lately but this article was too good not to share. It is titled How to Make Piles of Money Using Instagram. It talks about these specific Instagram classes which are set up by Facebook to teach people how to best utilise the app.

Last week Wednesday, Instagram announced a new upgrade for the app which now includes a long-format of video called "IGTV" with its icon right next to the DMs icon on the top right of the screen. Here in Mzansi you would've noticed the update on Friday and if you haven't updated your app by now, you're totally missing out on some cool content.

Last week, before all the public holidays, Facebook released their first quarter numbers which are their first since the data sharing scandal broke. These numbers only contain 2-weeks of post-scandal data; we will have to wait another quarter to see if there was any significant fallout from the scandal. Having a look at their numbers and reading the earnings call with investors afterwards, there was very little impact on user numbers. The bigger impact will be seen in costs associated with making data more secure, and having more stringent requirements for advertisers.

Facebook had a stellar 2017 year when it comes to earnings as they have managed to beat expectations relentlessly without fail. Here's is what the Zuck had to say about the year:

In his book, Prof. Scott Galloway mention's the fact that Facebook owns three of the five platforms that got to 100 Million Active Users the fastest, i.e. Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. People laughed at the Instagram purchase. Instagram was bought for $1 Billion and everyone and their dog second guessed it. Fast forward to today, it's worth between $60-$100bn in most traditional valuation metrics. Probably one of the best acquisitions in tech in the past 20 years. Instagram is all about the double V's; the visuals and vanity which millennials love so much! This was a big bold bet, and Zuckerberg and team kept the growth going, maintained passion among millennials, it's been a fantastic acquisition.

It is still a phenomenal story, the growth of Facebook from a dormitory, nearly 13 and a half years ago now. The date most people take as the launch of what is now a sprawling network is 4 February 2004. I had been sitting in my Vestact chair for a little over a year. A few Harvard mates (led by the Zuck) created a platform, before the launch of thefacebook.com, which originally was for connecting people through social networks at colleges. The likes of Berkley, Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, really an Ivy League connection tool.

Facebook has changed the ways that we communicate with one another. Perhaps the improvements in hardware, handheld mostly, has given platforms like Facebook/Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp the ability to grow sharply. If the front and very important back cameras and delivery mechanism to the internet (Wifi and LTE - 5G nearing) did not exist, we wouldn't be able to share our thoughts, pictures and experiences immediately. It must be far harder to make important decisions as a teen and in the early stages of adulthood when there are all these platforms around. At the same time, it has never been easier to stay in touch with one another than at any other stage in humanity.

Facebook reported numbers after hours, for the full year and the fourth quarter. Another beat on both metrics, revenues income - Facebook Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2016 Results. Revenues for the full year clocked 27,638 billion Dollars, an increase of 54 percent from last year. Wow. Net income for the full year topped 10 billion Dollars, up 177 percent from the year prior.

Facebook. You may have heard of this business. You may use the products, Facebook being the core one, WhatsApp and Instagram following on their heels very closely. Heck, your Gran may use Facebook. Your teenage friends (more likely kids and grandkids) may not, they go to school with their friends all day and every day, why do they need it? For the record, the folks who spend and are served ads, possibly have larger buying power. Over one billion people exclusively use their mobile phones to interact with Facebook. i.e. no desktop, no laptop. That in itself is amazing. 1.055 billion mobile only monthly users.

Whoa! Facebook just blew the market away in such a huge way last evening with earnings that comfortably topped estimates. This has, in my opinion, become the most watched company in the world, possibly eclipsing Apple. We are living and learning as humans to deal with issues of privacy and what is acceptable and not on the internet, most especially social media. Whilst you can post whatever you want, you should think about it deeply.

The big news out yesterday on a tech front was from Facebook. Their Instagram app reached the mile stone of 500 million monthly active users (MAU), the more impressive number is that they now have 300 million people using the app daily. The user growth has been amazing since Facebook bought the app for $1 billion back in 2012, the app only had around 30 million MAU back then. Mark Zuckerberg's vision for the potential of the app was amazing, people back then could not understand how an app could be worth that much. The great thing about the app is that it is easy to use and people seem to connect better with images. For Facebook having such a 'sticky base' that is growing quickly means strong revenue streams from the app. In the last set of results, Instagram had over 200 000 businesses advertising on the platform and the estimation from analysts is that revenues will be around $1.2 billion this year.

On Wednesday Facebook released their 1Q 2016 numbers and they smoked analyst expectations. The stock was up 7% yesterday. Here are the numbers, Revenue for the quarter is $5.4 billion, up 52% YoY and Net Income is $1.51 billion up 195% YoY, so still huge growth coming through. The big driver of growth has been on the mobile front where revenue grew by 73% and now accounts for 82% of all revenues, mobile is also more profitable than your PC adverts. On the advertising front their average price per advert is up 5% and impression rates are up 50%, both due to a higher mobile to PC mix (adverts on your phone are in your face, where on PC they are to the edges of your screen). Have a look at the huge revenue growth from Facebook since it listed.

The F8 developers conference hosted by Facebook finished yesterday, you may not be a developer but part of the conference was explaining a road map for the next 10 years. Here is a summary of what was said at the conference, Here's everything Facebook just announced. If you have the time (30 min) watch the Zuck give his keynote speech, Mark Zuckerberg's keynote at Facebook F8 Developers Conference. The main goal for Facebook is to be a platform for people to connect to each other, to be the platform where developers can build apps that work within the Facebook ecosystem making Facebook a one stop shop. An example is opening up their Messenger app, to allow AI bots to communicate with you. So if you want to get an update on oil talks happening, you would open Messenger, go to your Bloomberg contact and send the contact a message asking about oil. The AI technology will then find what you are looking for.

Facebook (Fays-book). According to the Dictionary of Naryshkine, "to Facebook" is a verb whereby you will completely ignore the people around you in order to post comments or statuses for maximum likes, mostly to people who are "friends", not necessarily your closest 10 besties. These "interactions" can take place in traffic, either driving or walking (both dangerous), at social gatherings when you are supposed to be talking to physical people, somehow the virtual people always seem more interesting. Weirdly, as online dictionaries point out, the word Facebook is often written with an upper case, yet the trademark name is in lower case, facebook.

Facebook reported numbers post the market close last evening, this was for their third quarter to end September. Highlights include crossing the billion daily active user mark for the first time ever, a 17 percent increase over this time last year, of which 894 million are on their mobile phones (27 percent increase year-over-year), monthly active users are 1.545 billion (1.385 billion on their mobiles, 1 billion on Android phones). And you and I can remember a time when the chattering classes were worried about Facebook being able to monetise mobile, remember that and the "disastrous listing"? Quarterly revenues grew to 4.5 billion Dollars, a record quarter for the company, the lions share of that (4.299 billion Dollars) being advertising. Revenues across all of their geographies grew strongly, when measured against the comparative quarter, take a look at this slide from their presentation: