Everyone's favorite social photo sharing network, Instagram, has just been purchased by Facebook for a reported $1 billion. Instagram has put out the following statement:
When Mike and I started Instagram nearly two years ago, we set out to change and improve the way the world communicates and shares. We’ve had an amazing time watching Instagram grow into a vibrant community of people from all around the globe. Today, we couldn’t be happier to announce that Instagram has agreed to be acquired by Facebook.
Every day that passes, we see more experiences being shared through Instagram in ways that we never thought possible. It’s because of our dedicated and talented team that we’ve gotten this far, and with the support and cross-pollination of ideas and talent at a place like Facebook, we hope to create an even more exciting future for Instagram and Facebook alike.
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.
The Instagram app will still be the same one you know and love. You’ll still have all the same people you follow and that follow you.You’ll still be able to share to other social networks. And you’ll still have all the other features that make the app so fun and unique.
We’re psyched to be joining Facebook and are excited to build a better Instagram for everyone.Best, Kevin
CEO, Instagram
And Facebook has put out the following:
I'm excited to share the news that we've agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook.
For years, we've focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we'll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.
We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram's strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.
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.
We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook.
These and many other features are important parts of the Instagram experience and we understand that. We will try to learn from Instagram's experience to build similar features into our other products. At the same time, we will try to help Instagram continue to grow by using Facebook's strong engineering team and infrastructure.
This is an important milestone for Facebook because it's the first time we've ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don't plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.
We're looking forward to working with the Instagram team and to all of the great new experiences we're going to be able to build together.
Mark Zuckerberg
So. Damn. Yeah. All your photo filters has belong to Zuck.
How do you feel about this one, iMore Nation? Will it change the way you feel about, and use, Instagram? Are you looking forward to have Facebook's massive resources behind Instagram, or do you dread Facebook style privacy intrusions?
Also: Instabook or Facegram?
Jump into the iMore Forums and let your voice be heard!
More: How to export your photos from Instagram and close your account
Source: Instagram, Facebook, AllThingsD
Reader comments
Facebook buys Instagram
Facebook = Digital Walmart
But Walmart is not free.
Why? Are you buying anything at facebook?
maybe... depends on how facebook use and abuse it. not really excited for this aquisition but money is money
As an entrepreneur, I'm thoroughly excited for Instagram. As a user, I'm even more excited Facebook is buying them and continuing to let them do their own thing.
Until Fb proves otherwise by changing something unnecessarily, I'm positive about Instagram's future.
Zuckagram.
Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.
bought != closed;
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As long as my Facebook account is not obligatory tied to my Instagram account, then it's all fine since I just post my photos to Twitter and soon Tumblr
App deleted.
It makes me even more glad that I deleted my Facebook account and deleted both apps (FB & Instagram) a long time ago. I just don't trust FB with any of my personal info and photos.
I don't want to jump the gun and delete my account and the app from my iPhone, but I am removing my photos before FaceBook moves in and replace them with a photo of Hitler moving into France. (LOL) I'll be watching closely to see how things change to determine the fate of my account.
A little irked with this one. I stopped going on Facebook a long time ago because it was a time waster, and I'm beginning to see Instagram as one, too. Call me a hipster, but I liked the community better when it was smaller. I'm now logged out and planning on deleting the app soon.
I love instagram just for the simpleness of the app. I don't like Facebook for the lack of privacy. Curious to see if the app will remain separate from Facebook. If it doesn't, I'm outta there.
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100% agree; I liked FB a lot more back when it was just a nice little place to go online and stay in touch with people. Now it's just getting to be... too much. So I got rid of both FB and G+, and life is simpler now. I'd rather waste time with people face to face than online, if possible.
I'm sure going to miss them.
Now the instagram app will start to suck :(
I use Instagram extensively, but only because it is one of the fastest apps for prettifying and uploading photos to multiple social networks. Given how buggy and crash prone the FB app is, I hope they won't try to "improve" Instagram and ruin a nice, simple and well working app in the process. Wouldn't be the first time. Tweetdeck anyone?
I think that Facebook has a proven track record of abusing the privacy of users
I don't see why anyone would ever use it
I stopped using Instagram the moment that I found Path. Much nicer user interface, and you can post to Facebook and Twitter all you want. Facebook should have bought Path if it was looking to buy a good app. This was about users though, and nothing more. It is sad to see a nice piece of technology gobbled up by the mega software companies.
If Instagram becomes as buggy and slow as the FB app I may switch to Path also. What's keeping me for the moment is that for photos I prefer the Instagram filters and for text I prefer HootSuite because it has a built-in URL shortener. Also, I don't think Path can share to Flickr.
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