Facebook buys Instagram

It is a typical day on Facebook. Someone LOLs and liked the latest meme in their newsfeed, their friends are reading the latest trending, and possibly trashy, story on one of the many social readers, and while they begin to type up yet another passive-aggressive Facebook status about their crazy roommate, an Instagram photo pops up. Instagram is a pretty simple photo app. Take a picture, make it look cool and upload it to the social platform of your choice for everyone to see. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg bought into this simple concept on April 9, spending around $1 billion to purchase the app. The Instagram app, which had been around for just over 500 days, is valued at over $1 million for everyday it has been sharing photos. “For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family,” Zuckerberg said. “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.” For business students, and all students as well, this is a great example of a young graduate who pursued a simple dream and concept and came out on top, improving the way the world shares photos. Kevin Systrom, the founder and CEO of Instagram, is 27 years old and manages a small team of only 12 employees. “When Mike and I started Instagram nearly two years ago, we set out to change and improve the way the world communicates and shares,” Systrom wrote in his most recent blog post. “We’ve had an amazing time watching Instagram grow into a vibrant community of people from all around the globe. Today, we couldn’t be happier to announce that Instagram has agreed to be acquired by Facebook.” Zuckerburg and Instagram have set an example when it comes to business ventures. “I think the Instagram acquisition is interesting because it opens your eyes to the true possibility of what you are capable of,” said Aaron Loftus, Business Management student at UVU. “It gives you an idea of the true potential behind any business plan, no matter how small or simple-minded the plan may be.” It seems one of the biggest reasons behind the acquisition of Instagram by Facebook is due to the fact that Facebook is lacking a strong and unique mobile photo-sharing presence. Despite the purchase, the Instagram app as people currently know it will stay the same. They plan to keep the key features, but may expand and create new unique features for users.