Facebook Buys Instagram for $1B
- Thread starter r3p1v
- Start date
Instagram was seeking funding @ $500 million valuation before the Android App hit. Considering they had ~30 million users with an app that only was available to half the smartphone world, a $1 billion buyout by Facebook doesn't seem that crazy.
One of the primary traffic-drivers for Facebook are photos. They drive billions of pageviews and are one of the stickiest items on the site. If anyone doubts the importance of photos, think about how often FB has tweaked the photos app (hint: lots and lots).
Buying Instagram makes a whole lot of sense for FB.
- Hottest image app out there, right before it seriously blows up (Android app).
- A dev crew that is well-versed in image-engagement and who built an engagement system completely unique from Facebook's.
- A bigger / better presence in the mobile world.
- It'll provide a huge boost to FB photos if the integration is done right.
Facebook doesn't give two shits about turning a profit directly from Instagram, they care about leveraging it to increase FB's pageviews and time spent on site.
Nah, I can see Apps as an industry sticking around for more than 5 years. I don't have the foresight to make that big of a call
. All I'm saying is that internet properties already have a high churn rate and i'm assuming that apps have an even higher churn rate. So I don't see an application lasting more than 5 years before it's replaced by something better or just becomes irrelevant.
So...you guys seriously think that a mobile app that serves tons of impressions per user that should have 50+ million users within the next couple months isn't worth a billion dollars, especially to somebody like Facebook that just launched mobile on their ad platform a month ago but with basically no mobile inventory?
I agree. Instagram isn't like other apps, purchased and used 2 or 3 times. I see people crazy for Instagram everywhere. The daily average use / user is maybe comparable only to Twitter and FB mobile apps, and it's a perfect mobile/web integration.
Here is an interesting viewpoint:
Did Facebook panic? - The Term Sheet: Fortune's deals blog Term Sheet
I kind of agree and my original thought was: they had to have felt threatened or felt that they absolutely had to do this to shell out that kind of cash like that.
But how exactly was Instagram any more of a threat than other sites like pinterest? Maybe they already tried to acquire pinterest, but failed?
I'm still quite confused. Seems like a good match for FB, but the way this deal was done seems crazy.
Did Facebook panic? - The Term Sheet: Fortune's deals blog Term Sheet
I kind of agree and my original thought was: they had to have felt threatened or felt that they absolutely had to do this to shell out that kind of cash like that.
But how exactly was Instagram any more of a threat than other sites like pinterest? Maybe they already tried to acquire pinterest, but failed?
I'm still quite confused. Seems like a good match for FB, but the way this deal was done seems crazy.
It's what emos use to show you it's raining on the bus's windshield and that's meaningful if you think about it.
Instragram is definitely here to stay. Everyone that uses it loves it. It's a very well designed app.
Facebook is also acquiring the talent from that company. Instagram is drawing in the younger crowd that Facebook is fearing it might be losing.
All Facebook has to do is say, you have to keep your Facebook account open to use Instagram.
This is a strategy by facebook to keep itself ubiquitous in everyone's lives and move it even closer to becoming an enclosed ecosystem like AOL was before it screwed everything up.
Facebook is also acquiring the talent from that company. Instagram is drawing in the younger crowd that Facebook is fearing it might be losing.
All Facebook has to do is say, you have to keep your Facebook account open to use Instagram.
This is a strategy by facebook to keep itself ubiquitous in everyone's lives and move it even closer to becoming an enclosed ecosystem like AOL was before it screwed everything up.
This sound very similar to what Google did with YouTube. Google made it so that you HAD to have a Tootle account to be able to use it. MANY people were unhappy with it at the time but it's still going strong.
