Instagram

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Instagram is a free social networking application that was launched in October of 2010. The program is solely based on photo sharing, allowing users to take pictures, apply a filter and blur features, then share it with all connected users on Instagram as well as other social networking sites. Instagram confines the photos to square shapes reminiscent of Kodak and Polaroid images compared to the normal more rectangular shape of mobile device cameras. Originally, Instagram was only supported by the iPhone, iPod, and iPad accessed through the iTunes App Store. However, in 2012 Instagram added support for the Android Camera phones running 2.2 or higher through Google Play. After rocketing 30 million iOS users, it won app of the year in 2011. Currently the app has over 50 million registered users. In April of 2012 Facebook made an offer to purchase Instagram for around $1 billion in cash and stock with the deal finally closing on September 5th, 2012.

History

Instagram development began in San Francisco in early 2010 when Kevin Systrom, CEO and co-founder, left his job in marketing at NextStop to pursue his side project Burbn. He had been working on programming a prototype in basic HTML5 in his off time, trying to combine elements of FourSquare and Mafia Wars. Mike Krieger was a former classmate of Systrom’s and thought the project had potential so he joined on with Systrom. Together, the pair raised $500k from investors Andreessen Horowitz and Baseline Ventures by March 5, 2010. After full completion, the iPhone app Burbn felt too cluttered with features. The app included checking into locations, posting pictures, making plans, and earning points for hanging out with friends. Krieger and Systrom then decided to focus just on the photo sharing aspect. Within eight weeks of switching tracks, Instagram was completed and ready to be shipped. By the end of March 2010, Instagram had been completed. In January of 2011, hashtags were added to the features of Instagram. When version 2.0 came out later that year in the App Store, it included photo filters, instant tilt shift, high resolution photos, optional borders, one click rotation and an updated icon. Finally, on April 3, 2012, Instagram released the app for Android mobile devices and was downloaded more than one million times in less than a day. However, there are no future plans to release the app for BlackBerry devices.

Facebook Acquisition

In its largest acquisition yet, Facebook made an offer of about $1 billion in cash and stock to purchase Instagram (with all 13 employees) in April 2012, a month before Facebook was going public. The plans intended to keep the company independently managed as many were concerned their photo sharing capabilities on Instagram would be thwarted by Facebook. The Office of Fair Trading approved of the deal on August 14, 2012, and on August 22, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission in the United States closed its investigation. From there the deal proceeded and on September 6, 2012, the deal between Instagram and Facebook officially closed. Instagram is now currently operating under the ownership of Facebook.


Features

Hashtags
Users can use hashtags to tag photos and help other users discover photos. Instagram encourages users to use specific and relevant tags to help users find photos more easily.

Liking
Users can like photos by double tapping on it. With enough likes, a photo can make it to the popular page, which is broadcasted to every Instagram user and is incessantly changing.

Geotagging
Photos can be tagged at a certain location where other users can view all photos tagged at that same location.

Filters
Users have the ability to add different filters to their photos, which consist of different lighting, saturation, contrast and color effects: Normal
Amaro
Rise
Hudson
X-Pro II
Sierra
Earlybird
Lo-Fi
Sutro
Toaster
Brannan
Valencia
Inkwell
Walden
Hefe
Nashville
1977
Kelvin

Blur
On top of filters, users can add either a circular blur border or parallel blurs, both of which are size adjustable.

Ethical Concerns

Instagram has a privacy setting that enables photo sharing to accepted users and disables all others from viewing. In order for one user to see private users photos, this said user must send a follower request and can only see those photos once this user is accepted. However, if a user is on private, those photos are still available to the public when a makes it to the popular page, or they are geotagged to a certain location. Also, when one user likes a photo, that photo is broadcasted via the following page to all of that users’ followers. Although there is a private setting, there are loopholes to private photos.


References

1. http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2012/04/09/facebook-buys-instagram-for-1-billion-wheres-the-revenue/
2. http://www.engadget.com/2012/04/03/instagram-android-download-now-available/
3. http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/05/burbn-funding/
4. http://www.quora.com/Instagram/What-is-the-genesis-of-Instagram
5. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19258608
6. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/facebook-buys-instagram-for-1-billion/