Instagram image by Darren Shilson
News broke yesterday that Facebook had acquired media sharing app Instagram for the staggering price of $1 billion in cash and stock. Even for the most adoring Instagram fans, a sum like that will take a couple of moments to process. To help frame the issue, and put it into context, let’s take a look at some of the facts underlying the companies, the purchase and what could be next.
Instagram: Size, User Behavior and Growth
- Instagram has 30MM registered users (Instagram). For anyone keeping track Facebook reports having 500MM registered users, Twitter has 105MM registered users (Twitter), and Pinterest has 10.4MM (Pinterest).
- More than 1billion photos have been uploaded to Instagram and 5MM photos are added each day (Instagram).
- The photo sharing app also garners high levels of user activity generating 575 likes and 81 comments a second (Instagram).
- There are more than 430,000 people on Instagram’s Android waiting list (Instagram)
See more Instagram facts at Facbrowser.com
Facebook: Photo Sharing and Forecasted Growth
- By 2013, Facebook will account for 7.1% of all U.S. online ad revenue (eMarketer)
- It’s forecasted that Facebook’s ad revenue will rise by 60% in 2012, to $5.06B (eMarketer)
- The average Facebook user has 26 profile photos (Pixable)
- 250MM photos are uploaded to Facebook each day (Facebook)
See 400+ facts about Facebook on Factbrowser.
The Acquisition
- Instagram will be the largest acquisition of a venture capital-backed consumer Web company since Zappos was bought by Amazon for $1.22B in 2009 (VentureSource).
- Only 37 venture-backed companies worldwide have been purchased for $1B or more since 1992 (VentureSource).
And One More to Drive it Home:
- Instagram only has 13 employees. 13 employees created a billion dollar app. YouTube (12 workers) was the last venture capital-backed company with as few employees as Instagram to be acquired for $1B (VentureSource).
As acquisitions go, this is certainly one for the record books. In February, Business Insider called Instagram the “biggest threat to Facebook”. Yesterday on his blog, Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged the scale of Instagram’s growth, writing: “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.” Time will tell how Instagram adds to Facebook’s functionality and growth. For now, at least, a picture is worth a billion dollars.
Filed under: Social Media
