Contrary to the opinion of tech watchers concerning the future of Instagram, the App has continued to wax stronger after its acquisition by Facebook for a billion dollars. Now Instagram has over 50 million users and adding new ones at the rate of 5 million per week. Around the time of its acquisition by Facebook they were at 30 million users.
For an application that started with about 15 million users, this is a huge feat but now putting the integration of Facebook, a total of 850 million people around the world can have access to it. But what exactly makes Instagram so special.
The fact that it was no 1 in the App store within a day of its launch, it was the iPhone App of the week of its launch and was launched in 7 new languages and an Instagram photo made the cover of the Wall Street Journal. The App is also now available to Android users. It is very easy to get started on Instagram, go to the app store, download, set up an account, select a username and upload a profile picture.
It allows users to share photos on social networks including Foursquare and tag your photos with locations, these photos are public unless otherwise stated. With the photo manipulation ability, you can turn boring pictures into amazing ones but make no mistake, Instagram can’t turn you to Kelechi Amadi-Obi with its filters.
It is all about finding your niche with Instagram, it is not about you but rather about your pictures. It has been rumoured that Instagram won’t be the last of Facebook’s acquisition before its IPO, as on the long run it may have to defend its franchise, Facebook is said to need more companies to increase its ability to monetize in mobile with services like ad optimization, data analytic and ecommerce.
