Australian users of the most popular photo-sharing app Instagram will start seeing advertisements in their photo streams. The company confirmed that pictures and videos from various brands including Ben&Jerry’s, Kraft and McDonalds will start appearing in their photo streams. All of them will look like regular posts in your feed, but will be marked as “sponsored”.

Australia is not the first country to see sponsored Instagram ads – the United States has been dealing with them for a year now, and the United Kingdom first saw them this September. Instagram revealed the list of the brands on board for the launch. They include Toyota, McDonalds, Audi, Lenovo, Tourism Queensland, Vegemite, Ben&Jerry’s, Flight Centre, and Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

Representatives of the company said that the rollout will start slowly, with ads being targeted at users depending on their demographic factors, like age and gender. In other words, it will be similar to how advertisements function on Twitter or Facebook, which acquired the free photo-sharing platform for $1bn two years ago.

Instagram marketing chief explained that their aim was to help brands create beautiful adverts that feel as natural to Instagram as the images and videos people share on the daily basis. Instagram is so keen to ensure the sponsored ads fit seamlessly into photo feeds, that each of them will be vetted by the company co-founder Kevin Systrom. In addition, when Instagram users run into an advert they don’t like, they can hide it from their feed and give feedback.

The free photo-sharing app was launched in October 2010, and is now recognized as the most popular social network in the world, with 200 million active users globally. It is unknown how many Australians use the app.

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