Two top social media marketing platforms are combining, as Facebook is acquiring Instagram for $1 billion.
"I'm excited to share the news that we've agreed to acquire Instagram and their talented team will be joining Facebook," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Monday-morning statement. Zuckerberg continued:
For years, we've focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we'll 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 interests.
We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram's strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.
Facebook is "committed to building and growing Instagram independently," Zuckerberg said. Instagram's connectivity to "other services beyond Facebook" is important, he added. In addition to Instagram providing its own photo-sharing service that shares photos on Facebook, Instagram also shares on Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Foursquare, and more. Said Zuckerberg:
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. We don't plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.
Instagram confirmed the acquisition in a post on its own blog.
For users, part of the allure of Instagram is that it's lightweight and fast. If you just want to share a photo, or look at other people's shared photos, Facebook is cluttered with games and apps. But Instagram is basically just a camera app with an array of arty filters and a "Share" button.
That lightweight sharing and big, devoted user base attracts brands, including Southwest Airlines, Bergdorf, Burberry, General Electric, Gucci, Pepsi Max, Redbull, and Starbucks ("23 Brands Using Instagram and What They're Doing Right"). As a marketing tool, Instagram is limited, with no mechanism for conversion, referring fans elsewhere on the Internet to additional content, and only offering basic analytics (you can find out how many people are following your brand, and users can mark photos as favorites, and that's about it). But for branding, it's terrific; brands use it to share photos of their products, from Starbucks coffee drinks to Southwest planes to big, hairy industrial machinery produced by GE.
What do you think is the potential for brands in an Instagram-Facebook marriage? Should Facebook enhance Instagram, or would that drive away users who love it for its simplicity? Let us know.
Mitch, - I was watching some analysis of this take-over on CNN earlier today, and one of the analysts opined that indeed facebook may have needed a boost in the area photosharing. That it was a core business at facebook, just as we know, and the problem was that facebook wasn't doing so well in photo-sharing on mobile. An area that is definitely not one to be ignored when the whole world is moving to mobile internet.
It seems then that facebook really did see a genuine competitor in this area. They were smart enough to pick it up before it could become too costly to acquire. Before political interests, lawsuits, expensive goodwill etc.
Mitch, I agree. It will be difficult for Facebook to leave Instagram alone, considering the $1 billion price tag. Even the idea of running it independently seems a stretch. Like others before, Facebook will find a way to have access to integration first or deeper than other social networks.
Well personally I don't think Facebook is just about photosharing either. There is this social reader range through which you can read the leading newspapers and magazines of the world and share information with family, friends and colleagues. However, photos do bring life to Facebook, especially for the youth. It enhances the facebook experience. Afterall, a picture is better than a thousand words.
The GigaOm article Karl linked to is very interesting: Here is why Facebook bought Instagram. Om Malik says Facebook is all about photo-sharing, and Instagram was beating the pants off Facebook in the critical realm of mobile photosharing.
Is that true? Is Facebook all about photo-sharing? I see a lot of photos in my News Feed, but I see a lot of other things too. Then again, I'm just one person.
The acquisition also gives Facebook access to location information, because Instagram lets users geotag photos.
@smkinoshita - Yeah, it's hard to imagine a big company buying a little one and then avoiding ruining the little one. Either Facebook will add features that users don't want, or they'll fail to update the service in some necessary fashion.
Personally, I think a quick lightweight network like Instagram will suffer being incorporated to a big, clunky thing like Facebook. It's yet another random body part being grafted to the Monster by a Dr. Frankenstein with a case of HADD.
- Facebook is eliminating a major biggest competitive threat. Facebook is still weak in mobile, where Instagram is powerfully strong. There was a danger peoplewould start spending more time on Instagram and less on Faceook. Facebook no longer has to care about that.
What marketers can hope for: Facebook is developing some sophisticated branding tools, such as Pages and Sponsored Stories. Marrying those with the loyal Instagram customer base is a potential win.
Oooh! Good point about dear old Kodak. Maybe Facebook can buy Kodak too.
Seriously, it's sad to see Kodak go and fake filter-o-rama phone app get a big payday. I didn't see anything about the Kodak announcement until your comment tonight.
Facebook may have made an important move by buying out instagram. A greatly summarized tool in the area of photo-sharing which is an important area for brands. Facebook may have had the technical capability to create its own, but definitely it has bought itself goodwill, and hidden behind a different name in joining the successful android bandwagon. Looks like a win for them. For instagram i wonder if they would have been better going it alone, but now its done.
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