Instagram Stories and WhatsApp 'Status' now boast of over 300 mn active monthly users

WhatsApp app icon. Reuters[/caption]On Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that 'Instagram Stories' and 'WhatsApp Status' both now have 300 million daily active users — up from a combined 250 million for Instagram in June and WhatsApp in July.The features, which are the clones of rival app Snapchat, now boast numbers almost twice the size of the original that has 173 million daily active users.Most of Facebook products, including 'Instagram Stories', 'Facebook Stories' and 'Messenger Day', now have their own Augmented Reality (AR) face filters meaning users could now see more innovation in coming years.According to TechCrunch, Facebook might copy Snapchat's Bitmoji personalised avatars and Snap Map location-sharing feature.Facebook CFO David Wehner on Wednesday said Facebook would boost its expenses 45-60 percent in 2018 in order to fund security efforts following the Russian intrusion as well as in furthering original video content, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR) and AR.Last month Facebook rolled out a feature that lets users share 'Instagram Stories' directly to 'Facebook Stories'.While the option to post 'Facebook Stories' to 'Instagram Stories' has not come yet, the company said it might bring it in the near future.Meanwhile, Snapchat, which is expected to report earnings on 7 November, managed to add only seven million daily active users in the second quarter of 2017.In the second quarter that ended June 30, Snapchat's parent company Snap Inc reported a loss of $443 million, with $181 million as revenue which was still below analysts' expectations of $186 million.