{"id":12877,"date":"2012-04-14T04:04:19","date_gmt":"2012-04-14T04:04:19","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-04-14T04:04:19","modified_gmt":"2012-04-14T04:04:19","slug":"Why-Instagram-Was-Worth-1-Billion-to-Facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=12877","title":{"rendered":"Why Instagram Was Worth $1 Billion to Facebook"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>\u201cHad Facebook been built today, it would be mobile.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That was a casual statement made last Thursday by James Pearce, head of mobile developer relations for Facebook to a small group of writers (including myself) during a lunch at Facebook HQ.<\/p>\n<p>I thought Pearce\u2019s statement was intriguing, but it got a whole lot more interesting Monday morning when Facebook dropped $1 billion to buy\u00a0its biggest competitor\u00a0in the mobile space: Instagram.<\/p>\n<p>Instagram\u00a0was beating\u00a0Facebook\u00a0at its own game, and the social network needed to stop it before it was able to do more.<\/p>\n<p>The photo-sharing app is essentially everything Facebook wants to be on your mobile phone. Facebook wants people using its mobile app to share photos of what they\u2019re doing with friends and to share their location -\u2013 something Instagram users have no problem doing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor years, we\u2019ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family.\u201d Zuckerberg said in the announcement Monday. \u201cNow, we\u2019ll 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Instagram was already huge.<\/strong> With the\u00a0launch of its Android app\u00a0last week it was poised to\u00a0get even bigger, fast. While the company was valued at $500 million just before the Facebook buyout, it could certainly have grown to a $1 billion valuation on its own.<\/p>\n<p>Adding Android support also puts the photo-sharing app in the hands of much of the smartphone-carrying population. Add a desktop app into the mix \u2013- there are a few unofficial ones available already -\u2013 and you\u2019ve got a fully-fledged social network on your hands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an important milestone for Facebook because it\u2019s the first time we\u2019ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users,\u201d Zuckerberg said. \u201cWe don\u2019t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Facebook wasn\u2019t just buying an app. They were buying out the competition.<\/p>\n<p><em>Read more at <a href=\"http:\/\/trap.it\/GLFABj\">Mashable.com<\/a><\/em><br \/>\n<!--break--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cHad Facebook been built today, it would be mobile.\u201d That was a casual statement made last Thursday by James Pearce,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":72448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-highlighted-post":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-small":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x90.jpg","colormag-featured-image":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-default-news":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","colormag-featured-image-large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-block-extra-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-small-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-medium-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"njaiyo","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/255e26fc52858afad234c2c1d44c946e16c565fd0ef5615b0c1caa793897759d?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"\u201cHad Facebook been built today, it would be mobile.\u201d That was a casual statement made last Thursday by James Pearce,","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["News"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":112,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":2,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"medium":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg",113,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"njaiyo","author_link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?author=6"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/255e26fc52858afad234c2c1d44c946e16c565fd0ef5615b0c1caa793897759d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"<a href=\"#\" class=\"category-link 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