When Instagram launched its Android app in early April, we said that it would only be a couple of weeks before the company crossed the 50 million mark. Well, it took three weeks (interrupted by its $1 billion dollar acquisition by Facebook) to cross that milestone. Read more »
Japan is even hip when it comes to nuclear fallout. The Gamma Watch Squadron is a crew led by a Japanese rapper that takes Instagram photos of elevated Geiger counter readings in public places around the Fukushima area. Read more »
With deals like Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of the relatively tiny startup Instagram, some argue we are in another tech-stock bubble. But others in the venture industry say that while there is some froth in parts of the startup ecosystem, there are few signs of 1990s-style mania. Read more »
Facebook’s $1 billion blockbuster deal for Instagram may have been motivated by a desire to keep Instagram out of Twitter’s hands. Twitter reportedly offered hundreds of million dollars for Instagram, which prompted Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg to offer a better deal. Read more »
It may be smaller than its Facebook-owned rival, but EyeEm is rapidly building up support for its discovery-focused photo-sharing service — and hopes to continue with a newly released Windows Phone app and a heavily revamped web service. Read more »
Venture capitalists greeted the new year with fewer overall deals and dollars invested during the first quarter, but in the rapid-fire world of investing in web startups this data is about as relevant as a day-old newspaper. In a post-Instagram world the tides have changed. Read more »
In the first quarter of 2012 all eyes were on the screen, both big and small. Apple’s new Retina display pushed video streaming, and broadcast-TV streaming service Aereo’s launch was quickly followed with litigation. These events and more are discussed in a new quarterly report. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Rolling Stone’s new social networking hub, #RSFans, aims to be a “two-way conversation” between Rolling Stone editors and Facebook, Twitter and Instagram users. Read more at paidContent »
Past one month has been interesting, to put it mildly. Facebook snapped up Instagram for $1 billion and Zynga lookout OMGPop for $200 million However, here are three key lessons (and takeaways) between these two deals and what they say about both these companies. Read more »
Clarence Wooten had some words of wisdom for MIT Sloan School of Management grad students who might go the startup route. Wooten-backed startups include Image Cafe which debuted in 1998 and was bought for $23 million seven months later by Network Solutions/Verisign. Read more »
Eye-Fi’s new $79 Mobile X2 memory card for digital cameras can be used to get images from a point-and-shoot or DLSR to a iOS or Android device, making it easy to share pics on Instagram, Facebook, TwitPic or any number of other photo sharing sites. Read more »
It’s hard to imagine Instagram’s rivals feeling good about the company’s $1 billion sale to Facebook. But at least one competitor suggests that users fleeing from the photo app could actually boost other services. Read more »
Everyone may be wondering why Facebook paid $1 billion for what appears to be just a simple photo-sharing app, but the biggest lesson to learn from Instagram’s success is just how important it is to build network effects into the core of your service. Read more »
Being a cynical optimist by nature, whenever I fall head over heels in love (no, not in the romantic sense) with a product, and the startup and the founder(s), I know that startup/product is going to be a winner. The Instagram-Facebook deal is decent testimony. Read more »
One of the great things about Instagram is its passionate community. The news of Facebook buying Instagram for a billion dollars is getting thumbs down from the Instagrammers, once again showing that it is people not corporations that control the social networks and how they evolve. Read more »
Some believe that Facebook’s $1-billion purchase of Instagram makes sense, but others argue the dollar value of the deal seems almost unbelievably high. Is it another sign of a tech-startup bubble, or a smart move by Facebook to lock up a potential competitor? Read more »
What is about Instagram that has made Facebook open up its checkbook and spend nearly a billion dollars in stock and cash to buy up a company only in its third year. There are many reasons, and the biggest one is fear. Read more »
Facebook has acquired Instagram for nearly one billion dollars, the company announced this morning in a blog post. The deal is a combination of cash and stock. With this sale, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, cofounders of Instagram are the newest mega-millionaires in Silicon Valley. The duo […] Read more »
After 16 months of iPhone exclusivity, Instagram is on Android, although some iPhone owners aren’t impressed. A Galaxy Note review unit arrived and the large size is already becoming a benefit to me. Plus, Sprint has two LTE phones ready before the 4G network arrives. Read more »
A recent survey found the vast majority of photo enhancing and editing is done on a computer: just 15 percent of smartphone owners take and edit photos on their mobile device. This is good news for the growth opportunities of Instagram and other mobile photo apps. Read more »
Has Pinterest created an entirely new way for users to share content? A survey conducted on GigaOM asked just that question, and a new GIgaOM Pro report delves into the various implications for the social network. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The long wait for Instagram on Android is over. The popular free photo sharing application that launched on Apple iOS devices (and stayed there) is available in Google Play for smartphones running Android 2.2 or better. So get to it, Android users: Start snapping those images! Read more »
Some argue that Google+ doesn’t have more users — or more active users — because of its poor design. But the biggest issue is that while there are plenty of reasons for Google to want such a network, there are few compelling reasons for users to want it. Read more »
This week AT&T floated a plan to enable app developers to pay for the data that subscribers use in their apps. The model might resonate with some developers and subscribers, but it is likely to create more problems than it ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Location-based photo sharing app Color famously flamed out after raising millions of dollars in funding. Now, with them out of the picture, French service Sharypic wants to step into the gap and provide photo sharing for events. Can it compete in a crowded market? Read more »
According to Edward Aten, founder of Swift.fm, Facebook is recreating and competing with nearly every significant Internet product of the last few years. It’s an unprecedented pivot that threatens Facebook’s core products and may eventually benefit the very same startups Facebook is trying to crush. Read more »
If you’re like many of us, you’re already thinking over some New Year’s resolutions that will make you a better “you” in 2012. But how are the tech industries’ thought leaders approaching the new year? We asked 12 of them for their resolutions. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Story Wheel brings the good old narrated slide show back to life, thanks to a mashup of Instagram and Soundcloud. The very first Story Wheel was produced by Soundcloud’s co-founders to celebrate a few important milestones: Soundcloud now has 10 million registered users and 10,000 developers. Read more »
Instagram’s website is currently receiving 10 million page views each day, adding up to some 300 million page views per month, GigaOM has learned. This is especially interesting given that the Instagram experience is tailored to users of the app, not viewers on the web. Read more »
Pinterest is one of the hottest startups around these days and represents the latest buzzword in the Valley: curation. Here are some of my thoughts on why Pinterest and other such companies are getting attention and gaining traction with younger Internet users. Read more »
As I look ahead, I hope that over the next few months, some of the technology products that I use the most will make incremental changes that could make life better for the people who use their products – including me. Read more »
Edward Aten of Swift.fm noticed a shift in priorities this year. Visual experiences are starting to become the gold standard of web success; the successful web companies of 2011 and beyond are just simply better looking. Read more »
A sharp uptick in the sales of Apple’s iPhone 4S along with the status of “top app of 2011″ has turned this to be a year to remember for San Francisco-based startup, Instagram. The company saw a spike in new users and photo-sharing activity. Read more »
Apple revealed iTunes Rewind 2011 on Thursday, its latest installment of the annual feature where it lauds the best content available on its network of iTunes media stores. The list highlights the best in music, apps, tv shows, movies books and podcasts for the past year. Read more »
Web creations such as the video mashups that Andy Baio calls “supercuts” are another example of how we can broadcast stylized, curated moments of our lives — part of the “broadcast yourself” movement that is playing a key role in what we do on the social web. Read more »
Wow! Was that week chock-full of news or what? Frankly, sometimes it was hard to remember what was happening. Nevertheless, here are some good and mind-nourishing pieces for the weekend that you can actually enjoy and learn from. Read more »
The mobile apps and services founders speaking at Mobilize 2011 this week gave some great advice for startups to follow. We picked out some of the best tips from Pandora, Flipboard, Instagram, Hipmunk, Formspring and Grey Area. Read more »
Flickr on Wednesday unveiled its first official Android app, a “shoot-and-share” app that gives users the ability to edit photos and add visual filters.By hitting the market now, Flickr for Android could well take some air out of Instagram’s upcoming Android debut. Read more »
Less than a year after it launched its photo-sharing app, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom told attendees at GigaOM’s Mobilize conference that new users are signing up at a rate of 78 per minute, and 26 photos are being uploaded to the service every second. Read more »
