What you need to know
America is the land of opportunity, especially when it comes to technology. Inventors and innovators can make a mint. Few have done so as swiftly as Kevin Systrom. In less than two years of work, the former Google employee sold his popular mobile application (or app) to Facebook (the social media giant) for one billion dollars. Yes, that’s billion, with a “B!” How did he do it?
As Edison himself opined, it was the result of 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration. In other words, he worked really, really hard. Mr. Systrom, 28, co-founded a company called Instagram in 2010. The application they created gives mobile phone users the ability to quickly and conveniently share photos on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and other social networking sites.
Like many wunderkinds, Systrom started working on the project that would make him rich in college. A huge fan of photography, he started looking for a way to share images on the internet. After a few years at Google and a few more at Nextstop, a vacation recommendation site, he hooked up with Mike Krieger, a fellow Stanford University graduate.
In the early days of the internet, images were few and far between, since pages with pictures took longer to load. But as speeds and proliferation increased, images have become more popular. Both Systrom and Krieger agreed that the future of the medium would be more image-driven. Therefore, they narrowed their focus and set out to create the ultimate picture sharing application.
The designers have described early versions of the software as “cluttered,” which forced them to start from scratch. The team removed all the fancy features and concentrated on the comment, photo, and like capabilities. When the work was done, they had a simple, user-friendly application that was a hit from day one.
The Instagram app Launches
Instagram was launched in October of 2010. Before they sold the company to Facebook, over thirty million people had downloaded it, making it the hottest app on earth. When the Android version was introduced, more than one million users purchased it in the first 12 hours alone! That may be why Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, offered Systrom and Krieger a sum they simply couldn’t refuse.
Only eighteen months after it opened its doors, Instagram was valued at half a billion dollars. Mr. Zuckerberg offered the partners double that for the firm—a cool billion. Some experts said that was too high a price to pay. But many have lost their shirts and reputations betting against the founder of Facebook.
If a picture is worth a thousand words,
35 million people taking pictures is worth a Billion Dollars?
Why did Facebook buy?
Mobile access will play a critical role in the company’s future, and before they acquired Instagram, Facebook was falling behind. A popular application that lets users share pictures is just what the doctor ordered. According to a recent article, a new member signs up every two seconds! It’s no wonder Mr. Zuckerberg opened the company coffers and shelled out the big bucks for the former startup.