Instagram is acquired by Facebook

http://blog.instagram.com/post/20785013897/instagram-facebook

by lewispb • 14 years ago

293 88 14 years ago

blog.instagram.com

peacemaker2• 14 years ago

Well done to the guys at Instagram, they've accomplished a lot in 2 years I think.

lewispb2• 14 years ago

Absolutely. It'll be interesting to see how Facebook take Instagram forward, and how features from Instagram will make there way into Facebook's photo product.

cantbecool• 14 years ago

The big question is for how much?

peacemaker2• 14 years ago

One billion dollars. Seriously.

j2labs• 14 years ago

Got evidence?

lawnchair_larry• 14 years ago

I don't want to live on this planet anymore

gfosco• 14 years ago

F*ck Facebook... evil corporation of evil. Harbinger of a world without privacy, it dooms us all.

astrodust2• 14 years ago

Although I agree, this goes without saying.

cnbeuiwx• 14 years ago

Oh crap.... Facebook got their dirty hands on this one. :(

huhtenberg2• 14 years ago

Sound of a good app flushing down the toilet

Uninstalled. Congrats to founders though, well executed, guys.

astrodust2• 14 years ago

It was a good ride.

What's the next Instagram? Is there an alternative?

juliano_q3• 14 years ago

Lightbox seems to be gaining some traction, and it has a web interface too. I am considering it.

callmeed• 14 years ago

Camera Awesome from SmugMug is pretty good. There are some things I don't like but they have traction and a solid reputation as a company that will remain independent and VC-free.

JackWebbHeller• 14 years ago

Why? Just on principal that as soon as a big company buys a little company, the product will inevitably get worse?

Nothing has changed for the end user yet, has it?

huhtenberg2• 14 years ago

Personally, I wouldn't touch anything Facebook with a long pole.

Bud2• 14 years ago

Yes. The instant Facebook bought them, user trust went out the window. There is active, intense, well-founded mistrust by users regarding Facebook's ability or desire to protect user privacy in any way.

Indeed, anyone paying attention can see that Facebook actively and systematically attacks user privacy. Instagram just became part of that.

So yes, something has changed.

juliano_q3• 14 years ago

After only one week using Instagram for Android it was already my favorite network. Congrats for the Instagram team, but I cant deny that I just lost much of my sympathy for the network, since I can´t stand the way that Facebook handles privacy anymore.

asselinpaul• 14 years ago

If photo filters are worth this much, I'm in the wrong business.

dasil003• 14 years ago

30,000,000 people using anything has got to be worth at least 9 figures.

tghw• 14 years ago

$33 per user? That's optimistic.

karanbhangui2• 14 years ago

Honest question about this: my buddy and I have a Facebook app with 21M registered users, with about 10% of that being monthly active. How would we compare?

terhechte• 14 years ago

Active users are worth this much. Whatever you do that attracts and retains users will become valuable.

stevewilhelm• 14 years ago

Processing several million photos a day from thirty million users is worth something.

homosaur3• 14 years ago

Can someone please tell me how Instagram's actual content is worth anything? We're talking about photo-filtered cell phone camera shots here. Facebook doesn't need a user acquisition ploy.

I guess maybe it's a move to keep users in Facebook, but I'd be willing to bet a million bucks that almost everyone is discovering Instagram content via Facebook or Twitter.

Seems like mostly a huge waste of cash.

loverobots• 14 years ago

They're buying a competitor (Yahoo and Excite had a change to buy a tiny Google) so why take the chance?

And they're buying part of it with stock. It just doesn't feel like it's real money so FB doesn't see it as a $1 Billion.

Lastly, Google doesn't buy it and add lots of activity to G+ almost immediately.

homosaur3• 14 years ago

I didn't think about the G+ aspect, you're probably on the right track there.

juliano_q3• 14 years ago

IMO Instagram had a huge potential to be the next big social network. I think Mark noticed it too and bought before it became too big.

homosaur3• 14 years ago

You might be right that was their thinking, but it's a long trek from photo sharing to ubiquitous social network.

Splines3• 14 years ago

Instagram has a social network!? I must be missing something when I open their app. It seems like a "add a funny filter to your picture" sort of thing.

benmathes• 14 years ago

At least in part, this was a defensive purchase. A huge amount of facebook's traffic, pull, data costs, etc. are probably photos. Instagram is a photo-based social network.

Actually, this was probably a tech buy for the photo filters. Totally.

rwhitman• 14 years ago

Facebook's success is largely staked on the fact its the world's most popular and successful photo sharing application. Any viable competition in that space is a real threat to Facebook's dominance in this area, its a strategic move

hub_• 14 years ago

Users are the product.

JoeCortopassi• 14 years ago

I think the point that everyone is missing here, is how heavily integrated Instagram is in non-Facebook social networks (i.e. twitter and Flickr). Yes, part of the valuation was due to Instagram being an up and coming social network. But the main value of this acquisition comes from the fact that, with this single purchase, Facebook is able to leverage multiple social network's userbases into their own.

From captain Zuck's post on Facebook "We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience." (https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10100318398827991)

bbayer• 14 years ago

I think it is ridiculous. No need for user base, no need for technology. Even no serious business model. Anything I missed?

nextparadigms• 14 years ago

For those of you that are looking for alternatives now:

http://lifehacker.com/5899690/dont-bother-with-instagram-her...

ja27• 14 years ago

I know they're saying they won't do another acquisition like this, but why not Pinterest too? It would make more sense to me than Instagram.

http://www.privco.com/research/top-5-reasons-facebook-should...

chbrown• 14 years ago

The front page of HN is a brilliant example of why you should use the active voice when the passive is unnecessary. 403 points (active) vs. 150 points (passive).

Great A&B testing, guys.

lewispb2• 14 years ago

No worries ;) To be fair the facebook announcement was posted 10 minutes prior to the instagram.com post and so generated discussion quicker.

azarias3• 14 years ago

Congrats guys. This is really exciting stuff!

azarias3• 14 years ago

The last exciting acquisition I remember is Mint. One of those "must work hard" events.

mahoneyta• 14 years ago

Just get deja mi instead, way better app anyways!

mendable• 14 years ago

This Wired article[1] states that the first co-founder owned 40% of the company and the second co-founder owned 10% of the company at the time of acquisition.

This might suggest they started out with an 80/20 split.

Why? How did that split come about?

[1] http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/04/facebook-buys-instagr...

speedracr• 14 years ago

Kevin Systrom went all in at an earlier point. Discussed in more detail by the two of them here: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2745 (video)

Rev55• 14 years ago

I wonder if Instagram has any patents that can be used in Facebook's patent war with Yahoo.

As a mobile social network, Instagram has no equal in the photo category.

It would be foolish to think that after a year and half a tech company with vc backing would not have at least 5 solid patents that could be used for defensive purposes.

Even if Instagram has patents that would in some way affect any yahoo holdings (specifically flickr), I don't see a $1 Billion value.

jwegan• 14 years ago

They have only been around for 2 years so they certainly have not been granted any patents. It is very unlikely they have even filed for any patents. Most startups will only file patents in their first few years if patents are a critical part of defending their business. Patents take a lot of time & money with very little payoff (they mainly protect you from being sued). It is not a good investment of a startups resources to be filing patents unless the patents are critical to the success of the business.

daimyoyo• 14 years ago

Does anyone know if Instagram will require facebook credentials to log in now? One major reason I have enjoyed Instagram is that it's a separate network away from facebook etc.

gcb• 14 years ago

And now google will notice that it needs decent photo integration on plus and do more innovation there than instagram ever dreamed.

or it will stagnate everything in the market like youtube did to video (and is slowly trying to repair recently).

Instagram is acquired by Facebook

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