Facebook have just announced that they are buying Instagram. Mark Zuckerberg posted the announcement on his Facebook page, and Kevin Systrom, CEO of Instagram soon after wrote his own post on the Instagram blog trying to reassure concerned fans of the service. “It’s important to be clear that Instagram is not going away. We’ll be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network. We’ll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience”, he wrote.
What this will mean for the Instagram services to to early to tell. It could possibly be like with Facebook‘s deal with Spotify earlier, that forces new users of the music service to have an Facebook account to be able to subscribe or join. This might put some people off from using Instagram in the future, just like it did Spotify fans in the beginning, but then again it could be benificial for both Facebook and Instagram users in the end.
Kevin Systrom of Instagram assured that “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. And you’ll still have all the other features that make the app so fun and unique.” How this will turn out is of course in the end up to Facebook when all the paperwork has been signed. Facebook has hardly been open to users sharing information across social networks in the past, so I remain skeptical.
Some assuring words come from Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook post “We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook.”
The transaction is according to the press release approximately $1 billion in a combination of cash and shares of Facebook. The transaction is expected to close later this quarter.
