Instagram’s rise from their early beginnings as a company called Burbn simply trying something new to the image sharing giant of today is nothing short of impressive. In a mere 17 months, the company had a fantastic exit; it was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion, a company synonymous with the word ‘startup’. And, throughout these 17 months, Instagram blew through various milestones very quickly. The first Instagram app which was launched in 2010 had 200,000 users in the first week. This number jumped to 1.75 million by February, then 4 million in May. Staggering growth, really, for what on the surface is such a simple app.
But, it is this simplicity that lured users to the service. It made taking and sharing photos – and viewing said photos – very simple. And it helped spice up photos from people who otherwise took relatively average photos, inspiring people to try and take better photos. With that being said, it also came at a perfect time when the iPhone’s camera became great. So there you have it, this is yet another case of idea + execution + timing = exit.
Funnily enough, just a week before Facebook acquired the company, Instagram had just closed a round of funding which valued the company at $500 million; essentially, they doubled the company’s valuation in a week’s time. Speaking of milestones, Instagram concluded its iOS exclusivity and launched an Android app a week ago, and has already surpassed 5 million downloads, hitting 1 million on the first day of availability alone. It’s clear that some Android users envied iOS users for Instagram as my timeline has already been flooded with new (Android) users of the service who seem a tad overexcited about it.
Below is an infographic that visually showcases a few of the major milestones of Instagram, using none other than photos taken with Instagram to do so.
From the infographic, its very clear that Instagram has seen a lot of good days when it comes to growth. But, I believe its not safe to say that Instagram will finally hit the dirt after acquisition from Facebook, it just doesn’t sound right. But its highly likely that Facebook might either “change” or “pick” out some elements from the current Instagram app and implement them in their Facebook app, if we’re lucky enough, that is.
(source Visual.ly)
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