A picture is worth a billion dollars?
Facebook got just a little bigger today with the surprise announcement that it had the acquired hugely popular photo sharing app, Instagram, for $1bn. The vast majority of this is in stock rather than cash but the founders of Instagram will surely be very pleased that their company, which released its first app only a year and a half ago, has reached such heady heights so fast.
Facebook has probably made a very smart move here, and much like their purchase of another key start up a couple of years ago, Push Pop Press, the real value of this acquisition will be the brilliant minds that make up the Instagram team and what they can do for the Facebook experience. Zuckerberg has assured fans of the app that he doesn’t intend to just fully integrate the app into Facebook and that it will keep it’s independence but we will very likely see the reverse happening, with design insights from the Instagram team slowly being incorporated into the way in which we share photos and other media through the social network.
“We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.
That’s why we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently. Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.” Mark Zuckerberg
Expect to see the way you share photos change and become a lot slicker over the next year, with this purchase Facebook have secured a very powerful weapon in the battle to win supremacy in this area.
