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Facebook buys Instagram for $1 Billion

Abe Olandres April 10, 2012 · 1 min read

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Days after Instagram released its Android app, Facebook has already announced that it has agreed to buy the mobile photo-sharing service for a cool $1 billion in cash and stocks (apparently, the biggest acquisition Facebook has ever made).

Instagram is merely two years old, has over 27 million iPhone app users by mid-March of this year.

That does not include the additional million Android app users in the first 12 hours from release just in April 4. Instagram probably has close to 30 million mobile users combined.

The announcement was posted on the Instagram blog a couple of hours ago as well as the Facebook Timeline of Mark Zuckerberg.

The $1 billion in cash and stocks is huge for a start-up that’s barely two years old. The company has around 13 employees. Instagram still does not make any money off of the app but could still enjoy that same status much longer now that it’s under Facebook’s helm.

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Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

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40 Comments

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Jesus · 14 years ago

Wow 1 billion. Pero mukhang makakabuti nga ito sa FB.

jorge · 14 years ago

iisa lang kung bakit binili…

PATENT!

Ray for En Route · 14 years ago

I can see how this works well for Facebook. By getting Instagram and integrating it probably to some new photo upgrade where indexing of photos can be done, they can compete with Pinterest.

Pinterest is already taking out some of the attention from Facebook users, so by getting an app that most people will use and can categorize their pics, people will no longer need to go to Pinterest

The Digital Media Hu · 14 years ago

This is Facebook’s largest acquisition to date. Instagram is so lucky to have been acquired by Facebook.

Kevin · 14 years ago

Deactivating my Instagram account and deleting all my photos because all of them would be automatically “owned” by Facebook, just like my online personal info there. Facebook is the devil in the making. You’re a bad boy, Mr. Zucks.

Marc · 14 years ago

haha what a joke. Best example of borderline paranoia. :D

Kevin · 14 years ago

I might be exaggerating but there’s a truth to it. one day you might wake up and all your info, posts, and photos are copyrighted by facebook. Welcome to the Digital Age

Marc · 14 years ago

I get you. But i think you had enough sci-fi movies. :D AFAIK, we have enough laws to cover our asses if in case.

Kevin · 14 years ago

I love Sci-fi movies, come to think of it, the tech in Minority Report is now within years of becoming into reality if you follow the latest news on augmented reality and flexible displays. And laws means nothing to ordinary users if the one you are fighting has a warchest of 100 billion dollars or more.

Lazada PH · 14 years ago

So is this a good thing or a bad thing? Many people seem happier when it was an Apple App Store exclusive, now there are so many people complaining about spams and whatnot. But hey, like they say, the more the merrier!

Lei · 14 years ago

Indeed, both parties are happy with the said acquisition.
Read further details here:
http://techbullets.blogspot.com/2012/04/facebook-to-acquire-instagram-for-1.html

benchmark · 14 years ago

Wow! Swirti! Imagine, 13 employees for billion dollars? It shows the low maintenance apps (base on the number of employees) against a good add on for facebook…san ka pa? Before may bumili pa na ibang kumpanya, binili na agad ng facebook na hinde ka talaga makakatanggi sa offer. :) well galing ng developer ng instagram! Hats off ako dyan :)

(Though i am not an instagram user)

showbiz · 14 years ago

(I think) the strong point of facebook even without instagram is sharing photo. By buying instagram, facebook just enhanced it.

don · 14 years ago

google buys youtube = video
facebook buys instagram = photo

kasi king na si google ng video.
kaya gusto naman ni Facebook sya naman sa Photo.

makes sense.

booboo · 14 years ago

Siguro Facebook just want to keep people using Facebook whether they’re on desktop or mobile. Itong Instagram kasi parang Twitter for photos. So, the more people sharing photos in Facebook, more people would stay on Facebook’s portal. Baka soon, Facebook would turn Instagram to look like 9gag. And dami nagsasayang ng oras sa 9gag, eh ito ang gusto ng Facebook: Spend more time in Facebook. Parang gusto nila sa Facebook ka mag-browse ng kahit ano online. Parang ganun.