By far, the most popular topic of today was Facebook acquiring Instagram. Immediately, all my social networks went full tilt with people being upset and threatening app deletion (note: not sure why they didn’t just delete it). While Facebook is starting to feel a bit like Microsoft in terms of seemingly global domination of the Web, that doesn’t make this situation immediately awful. I’ve got a couple of perspectives to consider before you stop using the best mobile photo-sharing application available.
It's good for business.
Both Facebook and Instagram have investors to please. This acquisition was announced right before Facebook’s initial public offering, and Instagram had just completed a new massive round of funding. Facebook probably felt like they “had to do” it, and it would be bordering on literal insanity for Instagram not to accept the offer—they’d have likely been thrown to the wolves by investors.
Overall, though, the prospect of a mind-boggling buyout is, at least, a decent portion of what pushes startups to innovate. We enjoy apps like Instagram because people want to make money, and small, brilliant teams are pushing hard on the big dogs. Better said:
Acquisition price aside, the fact that thirteen people can still frighten a massive company like Facebook says a lot about our industry.
— Zach Holman (@holman) April 9, 2012
Facebook is not killing Instagram (for a while, at least).
We’ll still have Instagram for the foreseeable future in its existing form. Things may change, but both companies stated Instagram would be developed independenly.
From Zuck himself:
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.
From Instagram:
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.
Give it time, and trust the tech/startup gold rush we’re in. If Facebook destroys Instagram, there’ll be another great team ready to pick up the slack and challenge the big boys all over again.