More than 50 per cent of businesses on Instagram produced an Instagram Story during July, with one in five businesses getting a direct message in response, the photo sharing app company announced.

Instagram Stories, a clone of Snapchat Stories launched a year ago, built a base of 250 million daily users and helped increase the amount of time people spend in the app.

Those under the age of 25 spend more than 32 minutes a day on average, while those 25 and older spend more than 24 minutes a day, Instagram said. The company said it added 20 features within Instagram Stories, including stickers and the integration of Boomerang, an app enabling users to make short videos which play on a loop.

Top location tags included Jakarta, Sao Paulo and Spain, while the most popular hashtags used in Stories included #goodmorning, #work and #home.

The Facebook-owned app will be rolling out birthday and celebration stickers to “give our community more ways to celebrate any milestone with friends and family.”

According to a study by Wandera, Instagram usage increased by a whopping 146 per cent while Snapchat endured a 25 per cent drop.