Facebook yesterday announced a billion-dollar-deal to buy the start-up behind wildly popular smartphone photo sharing application Instagram. The big ticket purchase was seen by some as a move by Facebook to strengthen defences against Google and blazingly hot newcomer Pinterest in the weeks ahead of what promises to be a history-making debut on the stock market .
“For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family,” Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg said in announcing the deal.
“Now, we will 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 widely-expressed interests.”
Mr Zuckerberg called the acquisition “an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users”, but promised it was a rare acquisition.
An Instagram application tuned to Apple’s iPhones, iPads and iPod touch devices has been downloaded more than 30 million times since the first version was released in late 2010 by the San Francisco start-up.
A version of the application tailored for smartphones power by Google-backed Android software racked up more than a million users in the 24 hours after its release last week.
“Instagram has built a sizeable mobile photo sharing community,” said NPD analyst Linda Barrabee. “Clearly the value proposition of Instagram’s offering is a solid fit for Facebook.”
The free mini-program lets people give classic looks to square photos using “filters” and then share them at Twitter, Facebook or other social networks.
Apple crowned Instagram its app-of-the-year for 2011.
“We’re psyched to be joining Facebook,” the Instagram website said. “It’s important to be clear that Instagram is not going away...We will be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network.”
Facebook users flood the world’s largest social network with images to share with friends, but the website hasn’t proven to be an ideal stage for organising pictures around topics.