Who Owns Instagram Now? You'll Never Believe!
Did you know the word Instagram is a combination of two words? Better yet, Instagram, who owns it? When then tech entrepreneurs Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger were working on a project in San Francisco; the Burbn, they realized it had similar characteristics as Foursquare. Foursquare is a search app that allows users to discover what is around them.
Kevin and co. had to redesign their project. To offer a different service from Foursquare, they ventured into photo sharing.
They coined the word instant camera and telegram, merging them together to form; Instagram. This was an app that was basically tailored as a photo sharing catalog for its users.
Originally designed for the IOS, it gained so much popularity. It had registered one million users in the first couple months owing to its release in 2010. Subsequently, the population grew to 10 million at the end of the year and by September of 2017, Instagram had 800 million users.
With its popularity gaining day in day out, Instagram has experienced tremendous updates over time. Its original features have been updated continuously to meet the growing desires of its users. Such features such as stories that “disappear” within 24 hours did not exist in the initial Instagram.
The first picture to be uploaded to Instagram was on July 15, 2010, by Kevin Systrom. It features his girlfriend’s foot and a dog in Mexico. Up until October of 2015, Instagram users had uploaded over 40 billion photos.
Thus, one may wonder, who owns Instagram images?
The initial Instagram promised its users that the content of their apps belonged to them. You upload your photo and it is yours.
However, keeping in mind when installing this application you give Instagram full rights to your content, their terms and conditions might change and ownership of your Instagram content would be subject to speculation.
You own the photos but the right to use it belongs to Instagram. They, however, would request your permission in the event they want to use your content.
Instagram services can be accessed via your mobile as an app, on your desktop or as an Internet web page.
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So, who owns Instagram?
When Instagram was released as an IOS app on October 6, 2010, it received funding from investors gaining in value over time. As of February 2010, its value was estimated at $20 million owing to investors as Jack Dorsey, Adam D’Angelo, Benchmark Capital, and Chris Sacca (through Capital fund).
By April 3, 2012, its value gained further with the wall street journal valuing it at $500 million. This value was later confirmed by Facebook’s acquisition of the photo-sharing application for $1 billion dollars.
Instagram was officially purchased by Facebook in a deal worth $1 billion in cash and stock. The idea was to keep it as an independent from Facebook and true to that, nowadays you can link Instagram with various social applications as Facebook.
The deal saw facebook part with $300 million in cash and 23 million worth of shares in Instagram.
One would not be mistaken to perceive who owns the Instagram as Facebook, though the original owners do have stocks in it.
Links to sources:
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/instagram-when-do-my-pictures-become-their-property-8429449.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instagram
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Source: YEN.com.gh
