Facebook to acquire mobile app Instagram and its 30 million members for $1 billion

by Kesavan Unnikrishnan (Guest contributor/Digital Journalist)

Facebook says it will spend $1 billion to buy Instagram, a photo-sharing start-up which recently passed 30 million members.

Mark Zuckerberg announced the purchase on his Facebook page. Facebook will be spending approximately $1 billion in stock and cash to make its largest acquisition to date.Instagram, available for iOS and Android devices, lets users upload photos and share them with “followers”, also giving them the ability to add filters and comments to pics. Many news outlets have joined Instagram, and the company has attracted the likes of the Obama administration, NBA star Dwayne Wade and actor Zooey Deschanel.

Zuckerberg posted in his Timeline that Instagram will not be swallowed up by Facebook, but will keep it up and running as a separate service for the time being. He wrote:

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.

Instagram started as a social network built around cellphone photos allowing people add quirky filters and effects to their photos and share them with friends. The service has acquired more than 30 million members in a short span of two years.

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom wrote about the acquisition on the company blog, saying, “The Instagram app will still be the same one you know and love. You’ll still have all the same people you follow and that follow you.You’ll still be able to share to other social networks.”

TechCrunch writes Instagram closed a $50 million Series B round from Sequoia, Josh Kushner’s Thrive Capital, Greylock and Benchmark at a $500 million valuation.