Instagram has grown to more than 150 million users, and there are big changes planned for the Facebook-owned photo-sharing service in the year to come.

In the last six months alone, 50 million people have signed up for Instagram, the company revealed in a blog post(Opens in a new window). As the community continues to grow, it’s also becoming more global; “now more than 60 percent of you are from outside the United States,” Instagram wrote. “Whether you’re in Moscow(Opens in a new window) or Hong Kong(Opens in a new window), Berlin(Opens in a new window) or Reykjavik(Opens in a new window), we’re more committed than ever to bringing you the best Instagram experience possible.”

But Instagram users are soon going to have to deal with one possibly unwelcome addition — advertisements. According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal(Opens in a new window), Instagram plans to begin selling ads within the year, and is currently trying to figure out how to incorporate marketing without irking users.

“We want to make money in the long term, but we don’t have any short-term pressure,” Instagram’s director of business operations, Emily White, told the newspaper.

Incorporating ads in users’ feeds will be a huge change, especially since Instagram has been free of such marketing since launching back in 2010. Instagram faced heat from users last December after announcing updates to its privacy policy and terms of service, which some members said gave the company the right to sell users’ photos. Following the uproar, Instagram quickly reversed course and abandoned the proposed advertising-related changes.

During a May earnings call, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said growth was the main focus for Instagram. “They’re growing very quickly, and that’s the right focus for them,” he said. “They have this opportunity to capture and build up this huge community and that should be 100 percent of the focus right now.”

Zuckerberg said at the time that he was “optimistic about the business opportunity” for Instagram, since brands are already embracing the app. But Facebook was focusing on growing that user base while pondering ways to create a richer experience for brands.

Instagram ended a busy summer with its first acquisition: Luma Camera. The company also recently updated its mobile apps with the ability to import video from your phone’s library instead of having to film it in the app.