Instagram starts putting Stories, but not Story ads, on its website

The majority of people who use Instagram’s app every day check out its Stories feed. Now the Facebook-owned photo-and-video-sharing service is extending its Snapchat clone to its online audience.

Instagram has begun showing Stories to people who log into its website, the company announced on Thursday. While the Stories feed in Instagram’s app features ads, for now Instagram will not insert ads within the online version, according to an Instagram spokesperson.

People can now view others’ Stories on Instagram’s desktop and mobile site.

People will eventually be able to post to their Stories through Instagram’s mobile site, but not the desktop version, the spokesperson said.

The move to put Stories online appears focused on appealing to Instagram’s international audience. According to Bloomberg, more than 80 percent of the people who use its site live outside of the US.

About The Author

Tim Peterson, Third Door Media’s Social Media Reporter, has been covering the digital marketing industry since 2011. He has reported for Advertising Age, Adweek and Direct Marketing News. A born-and-raised Angeleno who graduated from New York University, he currently lives in Los Angeles.

He has broken stories on Snapchat’s ad plans, Hulu founding CEO Jason Kilar’s attempt to take on YouTube and the assemblage of Amazon’s ad-tech stack; analyzed YouTube’s programming strategy, Facebook’s ad-tech ambitions and ad blocking’s rise; and documented digital video’s biggest annual event VidCon, BuzzFeed’s branded video production process and Snapchat Discover’s ad load six months after launch. He has also developed tools to monitor brands’ early adoption of live-streaming apps, compare Yahoo’s and Google’s search designs and examine the NFL’s YouTube and Facebook video strategies.

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