Instagram is known as a "Silicon Valley Fairy Tale" as it rose in popularity in just a few short months after only needing an initial eight weeks to develop the app. In what was a very quick year and a half, Facebook bought the app in cash for $1 billion, plus stock. The idea for Instagram originated in 2009 by Kevin Systrom, and was created in 2010 after acquiring capital from a couple of men at a startup party in Silicon Valley. Instagram, which was called Burbn at the time, was an app that allowed users to check-in, post plans, and caption photos, similar to app tycoon Facebook.
Before its 2010 launch, however, Systrom, his capital investors, and partner Mike Krieger reassessed Burbn and decided to only focus on the mobile photo's aspect of the app. This is when they also chose to rename the app to Instagram. On launch day, October 6, 2010, the app gained 25,000 downloads and became the top free photo-sharing app on the app store. Within one week they achieved 100,000 downloads and surpassed a million by December.
Within the next year, Instagram acquired millions from investors and was approached by many with offers to buy the company, but it wasn't until April of 2012 that Instagram was sold to Facebook and become the app that we now know many variations of today.
Instagram received loads of backlash for its partnership with Facebook, with people believing the apps were going to become to similar and that Facebook was going to take over the internet as well as people's private lives. However, Instagram has found its way in all the chaos and has become an extremely prominent app for anyone who just wants to share photos with their friends and families, all the way to those who use the app as a full-time job of sharing their thoughts, ideas, and influence with their followers. Some believe Instagram will die off in the next decade as "influencers" take over the app, but many still find it a light-hearted and slightly addicting way to get their daily photo fix.
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