After Mark Zuckerburg and Kevin Systrom confirmed the Acquisition of Instagram by Facebook for 1 billion dollars there were a lot of mixed reactions in the startup world, it was mostly seen as a good deal by major tech blogs, but there was some backlash among the instagram users skeptical about the future of Instagram. You can look at the reactions on Instagram posts: http://www.gramfeed.com/instagram/tags/facebook
Here is why I think this is great thing that happened to Instagram. I have been using Instagram since the very beginning and was one of the first developer to start building apps using the Instagram API. I have seen the insane growth rate of Instagram via API. Ever since I built gramfeed.com over a weekend and launched, I have had to deal with the scaling and keeping up with all the new Instagram users coming on to gramfeed. Instagram has been adding a user every second starting last summer and its even more now, just in the last 6 days Instagram has added about 6 million users. I have been keeping track of the user growth via the Instagram API user_id count. Last time this type of growth was seen was probably with Facebook. With 30+ million users on Instagram, they had to start thinking of revenue for long term sustainability. Instagram did announce a deal with Hipstamatic few weeks ago and I’m pretty sure there was some revenue split in the deal.
With facebook acquiring Instagram, making revenue becomes less of a priority for Instagram and they focus more on building the product to where they envisioned it to be.
Mark Zuckerburg did mention in his blog post that he intends to leave Instagram as a stand alone product and has no plans to alter the current functionality:
We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook.
Kevin Systrom also confirmed the same:
The Instagram app will still be the same one you know and love. You’ll still have all the same people you follow and that follow you.You’ll still be able to share to other social networks. And you’ll still have all the other features that make the app so fun and unique.
I think this acquisition is good thing and will only make Instagram better by focusing on the product development and not worry about generating revenue or monetizing. Expect more awesome things to come from Instagram.
This could not have happened to anyone better than the three guys I consider did all the work in building and scaling Instagram to the first 20 million users - Kevin, Mike and Shayne. I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Kevin at SXSW Photo walk last month in Austin, who was extremely compassionate and down to earth guy. I have also worked with Mikey and Shayne since last year after the release of Instagram API, when I started building gramfeed.com and while building Instalook iPhone app last summer, both were very helpful and quick to respond to any bugs or questions I had. Congrats to the Instagram team and cannot wait to see what might come in the future from you!
- Rakshith
(1) photo of @mikeyk, @shayne, @kevin and @josh, first 4 at Instagram
(2) current Instagram team