Following yesterday’s news that Facebook has acquired the popular photo-sharing app Instagram, the details of the deal are starting to filter through to the world. With a figure of US$1bn being bandied about for a company less than two years old, the question remains what has Facebook actually bought into? We look at some of the major facts and figures for Instagram.
Instagram timeline
Original development on Instagram began in early 2010, with Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger choosing to focus their efforts on a check-in mobile photography project called “Burbn”.
On 5 March 2010, they closed a $500,000 seed-funding deal for Burbn from Andreessen Horowitz and Baseline Ventures.
The product launched on the Apple App Store on 6 October 2010. By December, Instagram had registered 1m users. (It took foursquare a year to reach this milestone and Twitter two years).
In January 2011, hashtags were added to Instagram to help users discover photos and other users.
Series A funding occurred in February 2011, with a variety of investors, including Benchmark Capital and Jack Dorsey, executive chairman of Twitter, raising US$7m. The deal valued Instagram at around US$25m.
On 3 April 2012, the Android version of Instagram was released. The app has been downloaded more than 1m times in less than 24 hours.
In the same week, Instagram raised US$50m from venture capitalists, valuing the company at US$500m.
Less than a week later, on 9 April, it was announced that Facebook would be acquiring Instagram in a deal believed to be worth US$1bn.
Major facts and figures
It took just 10 months for Instagram to reach the milestone of 150m pictures uploaded. More than 1bn Instagram photos have been uploaded so far, with 5m new photos being uploaded each day.
According to Followgram’s research, 37pc of Instagram users have never uploaded a single photo and only 5pc of users have more than 50 pictures.
As of April 2012, there are more than 30m registered users.
Systrom, CEO of Instagram, is believed to have made US$400m from his 40pc share in the company, which is roughly US$725,000 per day since the app launched on 6 October 2010.
Co-founder Krieger will receive roughly US$100m for his 10pc stake and the company’s other 13 employees look set to share another US$100m pool from the sale.
After the launch on Android on 3 April 2012, more than 1m people had registered with the app at a rate of 2,000 people registering per minute.
Amazingly, the acquisition of the two-year-old company for US$1bn means it is valued higher than 161-year-old The New York Times Company, which was valued at US$946m based on yesterday’s closing price at the NYSE.
