When Instagram launched its first app in 6th October 2010, it did not strike most people as the kind of startup that would be acquired for $1 billion.
“We were all like, ‘what’s the big deal? It’s just photos and filters,” Brian Blau. But in retrospect, he adds, “There’s something to be said around that simplicity.” After months of testing Systrom and Krieger didn’t know exactly what to expect, but 25,000 users showed up on the first day. The app had almost 200,000 users within the first week. By February, it had 1.75 million users, and three months later that number had jumped to 4 million. For late 2010 when there were fewer iPhones on the market, that was a big number.
Krieger had to carry around his laptop everywhere and be ready to whip it out at a moment’s notice in case the site crumbled under the server load. (He often did this. In the middle of dinner. In a bar. Everywhere and thankfully so, since there was never any Instagram version of Twitter’s infamous “Fail Whale.”)
Last week when Instagram launched on Android, it racked up more than 1 million users in 24 hours. In the blink of an eye, Instagram may have ended up with 50 million users. With Android and iOS adding more devices per month than Facebook is adding users, there was a threat that a brand new social network could spring up right under Facebook’s nose.
By the time Facebook acquired Instagram on Monday, the startup’s iPhone app had been downloaded 30 million times. In the same week, its six-day-old Android app hit the 5 million mark.
Meanwhile, Instagram’s valuation has shot up with similarly impressive speed. Facebook acquired Instagram just as the startup was closing a round of funding at a $500 million valuation. Instagram’s $1 billion price tag means it literally doubled its valuation within a week.
