Has Facebook Made a Wrong Turn?

In March Twitter bought Posterous, December Hi5 gave in to Tagged and Google’s 200 million dollar purchase of Slide went global. Now, Facebook has made the headlines, not for the huge amount of users and not for the development of new technology but for acquiring a brand new asset. Yes, believe it, it is true – Facebook has officially bought Instagram.  Instagram is defined as a photo distribution application that permits users to apply a digital filter to the image and then share the images taken on different social networking platforms such as facebook, twitter and so forth. According to sources, while the company was reportedly valued at 500 million dollars, the deal went down for a billion dollars in cash and stock. The reason why everyone is dumbstruck and the question everyone seems to be pondering is why would Facebook want to buy out Instagram?

Instagram

Instagram is but a toddler in the eyes of the social media world, but many believe that it made the social networking giant just a tad bit nervous. It’s been said that the platform has reached 30 million registered users before the launching of the android app, which resulted in more than one million downloads. Best believe, any moment in time that you have social platforms that grow quickly; it is bound to be seen as potential competitors for the king. Being king of all social media platforms Facebook seems to have just engrossed the prospective opponent.

Double the amount

Many followers and fans seem to be shocked that Facebook’s founder had bought the company for almost double the amount other investors were set to acquire the company. Many seem to believe that the instant photo sharing site threatened the giant and that is what led Zuckerberg to his billion dollar decision. However, Zuckerberg stated that this move was an “important milestone” for his company as it is the “first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users”, he further stated that giving Facebook users “the best photo sharing experience” is why the company is so loved and the reason they knew this collaboration would be perfect.

Another factor that seemed to add to Zuckerbergs’s want to acquire the platform was the fact that Facebook was largely desktop orientated whereas Instagram is primarily mobile orientated. If one was to look at the mobile site for Facebook compared to its newly aquired photo sharing mobile site – mediocre is an understatement.

According to Zuckerberg they will continue to build up the company as an independent application which will continue to have the accessibility to other social platforms. Zuckerberg added that they intend on holding on to the known features of Instaagram, like having the ability to post on more than one socia media platform, not uploading your images onto your facebook account and providing you with the option to keep Facebook friends and instagram followers seperate.

Whether Facebook has made the biggest mistake in its history or whether the social networking king has managed to make one of the greatest moves you’ll never forget is all up to you.

Lindse Marco is an social media marketing intern at ROI Media.