14 DAY TRIAL // One of the hottest social networks has been acquired by the biggest social network, Instagram by Facebook. You may not think of Instagram as a social network, but that's what it was, it was just centered on photos.
Facebook is said to have paid $1 billion, €764 million for Instagram, a massive amount of money any way you look at it. But since a big chunk of that was stock and since Facebook is about to go public at a $100 billion, €76.4 billion valuation, Facebook didn't actually "pay" much for the photo-sharing app.
Beside the price, Instagram is no ordinary acquisition for Facebook. This is the first time the social network intends to keep the product it's buying.
In fact, Facebook is promising that Instagram will remain independent and will function as a stand-alone product, with a separate friend list and all the other social sharing options. Of course, big companies promise a lot of things when they buy smaller ones.
"We need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram's strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook," Mark Zuckerberg said in his announcement of the deal.
"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," he added.
Many users are upset that Instagram has "sold out," but they were also upset last week when Instagram for Android launched, tainting their "exclusive" iPhone-only heaven.
Meanwhile, Instagram added five million new users in the week since the Android version launched, so that's probably reason enough for Facebook to buy it.
"It’s important to be clear that Instagram is not going away. We’ll be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network. We’ll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience," Instagram Co-founder Kevin Systrom wrote.
Still, it's impossible to believe that some changes won’t be made, both to Instagram and to the Facebook photos section. For one, you're going to see a much tighter integration on the Facebook site. And, slowly, you're going to see Facebook being emphasized in Instagram. The ability to merge friends list is also a given.