Instagram users in Canada have noticed something new this week while scrolling through all the selfies, dog photos and dinner pictures.
The U.S. social media service, which Facebook purchased for $1 billion in 2012, is now attempting to earn money in Canada with advertisements. *the money is technically from the advertisers, not from Canadian users)
“This week we ran an ad, from the Instagram account, that targeted all Instagrammers in Canada in both official languages,” a company representative confirmed to CTV News on Friday.
“Our aim is to make any advertisements people see feel as natural to Instagram as the photos and videos they already enjoy from their favorite brands,” the spokesperson added.
In a post that showed up in some Canadian users’ streams Thursday evening, Instagram explained that ads look like normal posts, but include the word “Sponsored.”
Users can tap a spot on their screens to tell the service which ads they like and which ones they don’t. Tapping there will “hide” the ad in question.
While some users were critical of the change, others were accepting.
In response to the post, user “lauren.wb” wrote, “Good for you guys… make your money, while trying to keep your users happy.”
User “jfmaddocks,” meanwhile, called it a “sad day for Canadians,” adding, “don’t you make enough (from) advertising on Facebook?”
Instagram reports 200 million active users each month and says that an average of 60 million photos are shared through the application each day.
Ads started showing up in U.S. users’ feeds in 2013.
