How Instagram Went From Idea to $1 Billion in Less Than Two Years

The entrepreneurial dream of selling a startup for megabucks came true for the founders of photo-sharing app Instagram when Facebook agreed to buy the company for $1 billion in cash and stock. It’s a remarkable outcome for a young company that still isn’t generating revenue. Facebook is betting it can leverage not only Instagram’s photo filtering and sharing services but also its skyrocketing user base. Since its launch in 2010, Instagram now has more than 30 million registered users with hundreds of millions of photos shared. Here’s a quick history of how Instagram grew from a simple idea to a $1 billion acquisition: Related: Instagram Founders Agree to Facebook Buyout March 2010: Stanford University grad Kevin Systrom closes a $500,000 seed round…

Breaking: Facebook to Acquire Instagram for $1 Billion

Mark Zuckerberg I’m excited to share the news that we’ve agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook. For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests. We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook. That’s why we’re committed to building and growing…