Facebook to pay one billion for Instagram
Share Now on:
Facebook to pay one billion for Instagram
Kai Ryssdal: There are a couple of numbers that are gonna get us going today. The first is one billion, as in a billion dollars. That’s how much Facebook is going to pay, in cash and stock, for the mobile photo-sharing company Instagram. The second number is two, as in two years. That’s almost how long Instagram’s been around. Third and finally, a dozen, give or take. That’s how many people work at Instagram.
Roll all that up together and you get …really?
From the Marketplace Entrepreneurship Desk at Oregon Public Broadcasting…Mitchell Hartman reports.
Mitchell Hartman: Instagram launched its free app for iPhone just two years ago, and for Android smartphones only last week. But it already has 30 million users. That makes it the biggest company Facebook has bought so far.
And it’s a valuable social-networking community to acquire, says Molly Wood of CNET.
Molly Wood: Everybody kind of wants to get at these particular kind of geeky hipsters who have a lot of influence in the tech community, and all of those people are on Instagram.
And she says what those hipsters think is so cool about Instagram is its photo filters. You can make your pictures look like ’70s Polaroids — sort of nostalgic and semi-professional — before you upload them.
Technology analyst Carl Howe at the Yankee Group says even at a billion dollars this acquisition makes sense. Facebook has been slow to reach mobile users, and has offered some pretty clunky photo-sharing tools to consumers.
Carl Howe: They like to share photos, and this has really replaced much of the family photo album.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post today that Instagram will continue to operate as a separate mobile app and social network.
I’m Mitchell Hartman for Marketplace.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
