What We Instagram: A First Analysis of Instagram Photo Content and User Types

Abstract

Instagram is a relatively new form of communication where users can easily share their updates by taking photos and tweaking them using filters. It has seen rapid growth in the number of users as well as uploads since it was launched in October 2010. In spite of the fact that it is the most popular photo capturing and sharing application, it has attracted relatively less attention from the research community. In this paper, we present both qualitative and quantitative analysis on Instagram. We use computer vision techniques to examine the photo content. Based on that, we identify the different types of active users on Instagram using clustering. Our results reveal several insights about Instagram which were never studied before, that include: 1) Eight popular photos categories, 2) Five distinct types of Instagram users in terms of their posted photos, and 3) A user's audience (number of followers) is independent of his/her shared photos on Instagram. To our knowledge, this is the first in-depth study of content and users on Instagram.