In a post on the company's official blog, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom announced that the picture-sharing service has reached the milestone of 300 million active users per month.

This figure means that it has surpassed the user base of social media rival Twitter, which reported 284 million active users per month at the end of the third quarter.

"Two years ago, we were barely international and now we're very international," Systrom said.

It was two years ago in 2012 when Instagram was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion. It seems that Facebook's growth habits have rubbed off on Instagram, with most of the company's growth coming from outside the United States.

The growth from foreign countries can be attributed to the translation of Instagram's app into several languages, in addition to the connections made between local public figures and Instagram users.

According to Instagram, 210 million of its 300 million users are from outside the United States, compared to only 120 million foreign users reported back in March.

Instagram employs seven to 10 workers to manage the growth of its user base, but the company also received assistance from the larger growth team of Facebook. Systrom admitted that without Facebook's help, the time required to reach the milestone would have been much longer.

Instagram has become one of Facebook's most valuable assets, with venture capitalists that value social networks at about $40 for each user setting Instagram's value at $12 billion.

In addition, Instagram has kept the teenager demographic within the ecosystem of Facebook. The maturity of Facebook has led to younger users switching to newer mobile apps, with Instagram as one of the more popular alternatives.

Systrom, however, noted that Instagram could mean more to Facebook than just a means to prevent teen users from exiting the company's sphere of influence.

Instagram started running advertisements around half a year ago, which would allow it to become even more valuable to Facebook as a lucrative profit center.

In Systrom's blog post, he also revealed that Instagram will be rolling out a new feature that will add verification badges for celebrity accounts to prove their authenticity, revealing how important public figures have become to Instagram.

A spokesman for Instagram said that 75 out of the top 100 Instagram accounts belong to public figures such as actors, musicians and athletes.

Systrom also noted that the company will be intensifying its efforts in weeding out spammers who set up fake accounts to be able to create artificial buzz on certain products or topics.