So, I can't run for president but I'm arguably the same age as pro-democracy in China, real anti-apartheid progress in South Africa, and post Cold War "postmodernism" ... whatever that is. Also, The Little Mermaid, The Simpson, Gameboy, and GPS satellites.
1989 was a big year, people. Marked the peak of the baby boom's baby boom's baby boom. Boom. Making 2007 the hardest year to get into college for 18 year olds everywhere!
3 cheers for no more milestone birthdays!?
Why was Instagram worth $1B?
Today, everyone is a photographer. At one point in history the camera was a luxurious gadget. It was a piece of inventive ingenuity that not just anyone could get his or her hands on. Hop, skip, or jump along the technology timeline and we get to My Space, when communicating with peers didn’t require physical presence. With Zuckerberg and his virtual ‘book of faces,’ photo sharing became the bloodline connecting the human race. From college campuses to multinational corporations, the distribution of snap shots – whether taken at the local bar or in some corner of the globe – evolved into a quicker, easier, and crisper process. The Facebook founder was/is determined to maintain this cornerstone of the social network – photo sharing.
No doubt, photo sharing became even easier with the invention of the camera phone. But, our species was capable of more. When Instagram came along, the perfect storm started to brew, something other programs like Flickr and SmugMug were unable to achieve. Continually exponentially growing in terms of users and sharers, collectively referred to as IGers, the app has the photo sharing market by chokehold. IG is worth $1 Billion due to its mobile accessibility and universal and undeniable popularity.
Why is it popular, though? Because people like old stuff. The antique coffee-spilled-on-my-negatives look is cool. Even if the photo was taken yesterday or two minutes ago, the super-saturated, brownish, and with recreated vintage borders make the snapshot, somehow, feel that much more memorable. It’s warm. It’s cozy. It’s our way of being timeless in this age of the-newer-the-better.
The seventeen stylized preset filters have become the most desired form of photo creation and photo sharing. Anyone can observe this by looking at his/her news feed. Zuckerberg must have realized the sheer attractiveness of this app. With millions of users and, I am sure, billions of photos shared between Facebookers of all ages, I believe Mr. Social Network had to do something before the foundation of his entrepreneurial idea became chipped away by two dudes out of Stanford.
Accessible to professional photographers, visual artists, as well as the common person, IG crosses not only cultural lines among our youth but narrows the technological age gap. I have discovered some of my now favorite, and senior, photographers by finding their on-the-go shots via this app. You cannot avoid the Bieber fans, but there are serious artists who use and market through IG.
With six-zero offers from several capital groups, Zuckerberg knew that he would have to up the ante to obtain IG. A major deal in the history of Facebook, he had to reach some sort of significantly larger arrangement so that he could reap the benefits of this innovation to photo sharing. IG desired the easy upload process with Facebook just as Facebook desired the new way to share photos. It’s good timing, too, as the app becomes available to the Android community, expanding beyond the iPhone monopoly. So, nine zeros birthed this match made in photo sharing heaven.
The once probably outrageous idea to make mobile photos appear vintage materialized due to collective imagination and a little elbow grease – some pretty expensive elbow grease.