【Girls in the Night Traffic】

If you feel like you're more addicted to Instagram now than you were a year ago,Girls in the Night Traffic blame Stories.

The Snapchat-crushing feature is exactly a year old as of today so, naturally, Instagram is celebrating the only way it knows how: with a load of new stats touting just how enormously successful the feature has been.

SEE ALSO: Snapchat is becoming the social network it never wanted to be

The company says Instagram Stories, which now sees a staggering 250 million daily active users, has significantly increased how much time people are spending in its app. Though it stopped short of sharing just how big the jump has been between this year and last, Instagram reports that users younger than 25 are now spending upwards of 32 minutes a day in the app on average.

That may sound like par for the course for the notoriously social media-addicted youth, but the numbers for older Instagrammers aren't that much different. Users 25 and older are spending an average of 24 minutes a day on Instagram.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

In addition, the company says it can now count a significant number of businesses among the loyal users of Stories as well. More than 50 percent of Instagram's businesses posted a Story during the month of July, according to the company.

What's more, the format is proving effective for businesses-- at least by some measures. Instagram says that one out of every five Stories shared by a business results in a direct message.

Not bad for its first year, huh?

Naturally, the news just so happens to come at a really not so great time for Snap, which is due report earnings, for only the second time since going public, next week as its stock hovers near an all-time low.

---

Featured Video For You

---

These ingenious inventions will make summer so much better

---

Topics Facebook Instagram Snapchat Social Media

(Editor: {typename type="name"/})