The image is by Alex Castro.
According to anonymous employees who broke the news to CNBC, there are 2 billion monthly active users of the photo sharing service. The company has spent the last several months under scrutiny for potentially causing harm to kids and teens, and hasn't officially disclosed these numbers.
The last time the size of the user base was publicly announced was in the year of 2019.
When the platform revealed that it had 1 billion users, it was the last time that the size of its user base was publicly announced. It took three years for the photo sharing site to hit 2 billion followers. The employees who tipped off CNBC say that they found out about the number during internal conversations, and one staff member told CNBC that it was around a week before Facebook changed its name to Meta.
Three years after the merger of Musical.ly and TikTok, the short-form video app that just crossed 1 billion users in September, has become widely available. It is not clear how long that will last. The latest example is the reel visual reply, which seems like a TikTok imitation, and is the feature after feature that has been rolling out.
Since its own internal study found that the platform may contribute to body image issues in young girls and that it may make it easier for teens to find drugs, it isn't in the position to brag about its user base. In an attempt to counteract these issues, the platform has rolled out a take a break feature, which will prompt users to close the app if they have been on it for a set period of time, and also announced that it is introducing new parental controls.
The Verge asked for comment on the matter but didn't hear back.
