The extremely popular photo-sharing web service was launched on 6th October 2010 by developers Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. The service became popular very quickly getting close to a million registered users in just two months.
Instagram’s name comes from “telegram” and “instant” (polaroid) camera. The photos were confined to a square shape and various filters could be tested and applied to the photos.
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Instagram was originally released as a free mobile app only for the iOS platform. The Android app came out much later, on 3rd April 2012. The Android app was downloaded more than a million times in 24 hours.
And in that very month (April 2012), the service was acquired by Facebook for $1 billion in cash and stock. The deal was officially closed on 6th September 2012. The surprising thing is, that a year later, Facebook had grown only 3% while Instagram continued with its popularity growing by 23%.
On the occasion of Instagram’s birthday, here are a few interesting facts about the photo-sharing service.
- The creator Kevin Systrom became interested in computers by playing and creating levels of DooM2 game.
- Ellie Goulding created a new music video for her song “Anything Could Happen” by using photos uploaded by fans on Instagram.
- More than two-thirds of users on Instagram are females.