Queen of social media: Kim celebrates 45m Instagram followers

LOS ANGELES: Reality television star Kim Kardashian is now more than ever the queen of social media, announcing Wednesday that her Instagram account has a record 45 million followers.
“45 million Instagram followers!!!!! I love you guys!!!!!” Kardashian informed those same followers, captioning a selfie of a sidelong smile.
With that tally, the star of “Keeping up with the Kardashians” and wife of rapper Kanye West now has more followers than any other Instagram user.
Pop stars Taylor Swift and Beyonce are close behind at 44.7 million and 44.6 million, respectively, and two other pop stars, Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande, round out the top five.
Instagram, acquired by Facebook in 2012, is a platform for users to share photos, with little emphasis on text, a format that may be particularly well-suited to Kardashian’s particular self-promotion genius.
A photo of newlyweds Kardashian and West kissing at their wedding, posted to her account last year, became the most “liked” photo on Instagram before being surpassed by a photo on the account of her younger half-sister, Kendall Jenner, earlier this summer.