Who Invented Instagram

Instagram is one of the largest social media applications nowadays. The credit for the invention of Instagram is given to Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. The mobile application of Instagram was launched in 2010.

Kevin Systrom

Kevin Systrom was born in 1983. After he completed his graduation in science and engineering management, he started working as a marketing manager. Before that, he was an intern at Odeo Company (Twitter). He started Instagram as a project which he was working on part-time. Later, he quit his job and worked full time to develop Instagram.

Mike Krieger

Mike Krieger, born in 1986, was the co-founder of Instagram. He and Kevin met each other at the Stanford University, where Mike studied symbolic systems. While he was studying, Mike developed a very interesting application which was a photo-sharing project. It was made to cheer everyone up by sending them images of sunshine in the winters.

The Making and Development of Instagram

Kevin was a marketing enthusiast who developed his coding skills. After working on coding, he developed his application Burbn. People could check their location using Burbn. Eventually, Kevin discussed Burbn with his friends. Many of his friends were working at the VC firms; he quit his job after meeting with the VC firms and raised $500,000. After this was accomplished, Kevin decided to hire and built a team. He hired Mike Krieger. Kevin thought he should make his app stand out in the market; thus, he decided to aim at 'communication with images.' Subsequently, he scraped out all the other features and kept only photo uploading and comments and likes on it. Kevin and Mike developed the name 'Instagram' as they thought it was 'instant camera' and 'telegram' working on the photographs and communicating with people. The use of Instagram drastically increased, and it became one of the best photography applications.

Facebook acquired Instagram

Instagram was a huge success, with almost 27 million users in March 2012. Its users increased even after that; when the Instagram android application was released in April 2012, users worldwide received a positive response. Kevin Systrom and Mark Zuckerberg were well acquainted with each other, and Zuckerberg was aware of the rising popularity of Instagram. Kevin and Zuckerberg often discussed Instagram.

After offering to buy Instagram for $1 billion, Facebook acquired Instagram at $1 billion in cash and stock. Facebook did this but assured that Instagram would be managed independently.

The Timeline of Instagram

2010

Instagram was launched and soon became popular with its photo editing filters that made it different from the other social media applications.

2012

Facebook acquired Instagram, and the growth in the users of Instagram reached 80 million users.

2013

To generate revenue,Facebook started the sponsored posts, which allowed advertisements on the app. Using sponsored ads method for advertising was efficient with the rise in social media users.

Subsequently, Instagram went on adding different filters as per the need of the user. It kept up with its competitors by frequently introducing new features and improving.

It used many external apps to improve user experience and provide more options. The most popular example of the external apps used in Instagram is a Boomerang back and forward moving burst of pictures.

Instagram has survived the competition by introducing its stories and live video features similar to Snapchat.

Today, the most popularly used Instagram feature is a reel, which plays a short video just like other applications like tik-tok had before.

How Instagram Stands Out

Instagram stands out from other applications even today. Some of its features that made it popular among people are -

• Instagram helps people communicate with pictures and videos rather than reading long text, which people dislike nowadays.
• It is beginner-friendly, and using Instagram is free for everyone.
• Instagram transforms original images making them more presentable.
• Instagram decided to work for a single goal, uploading photos and look extraordinary rather than multiple goals.
• It doesn't have show any pop-ups and has very few ads.

Impact of Instagram on the People

Initially, Instagram had a motto to make the photographs simple and elegant. Today, Instagram has over 5 million daily active users. These include people from all walks of life, from content creators to businesses. Here is how Instagram has made a significant change in various fields.

1. Instagram has set new beauty standards with people sharing their unfiltered photographs and changing the definition of beauty.
2. Instagram has changed the way we travel. It affects our opinions of the places and the choices we make while traveling.
3. It has paved the way to new food trends, with people worldwide trying food recipes from other regions. It has also made food blogging popular.
4. Instagram is responsible for creating many brands. Be it fashion or any other business Instagram has helped them evolve.
5. Instagram has created influencers. With more people getting acquainted with the technology, sharing ideas and creating content has become popular today.