Facebook has announced that it's made one billion-dollar-deal to shop the startup behind wildly popular smartphone photo sharing application Instagram.
The large ticket purchase was seen by some as a move by Facebook to reinforce its defenses against Google and blazingly hot newcomer Pinterest inside the weeks sooner than what promises to be a history-making stock market debut.
"For years, we've thinking about building the correct experience for sharing photos together with your family and friends,'' Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg said in announcing the deal.
"Now, we'll have the ability to work much more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the proper experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people in response to your interests.''
Zuckerberg called the purchase "an excellent milestone for Facebook because it is the first time we've ever acquired a product and corporate with such a lot of users'' but promised it was a unprecedented acquisition.
An Instagram application tuned to Apple's iPhones, iPads, and iPod touch devices have been downloaded greater than 27 million times because the first version was released in late 2010 by the San Francisco startup.
Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom released the figure while providing a glimpse last month at a version of the appliance being tailored for smartphones power by Google-backed Android software.
The free mini-program lets people give classic looks to square photos using "filters'' after which share them at Twitter, Facebook or other social networks.
Apple crowned Instagram its app-of-the-year for 2011.
"We're psyched to be joining Facebook,'' Systrom said in a blog post Monday at the Instagram website.
"It's a must to be clear that Instagram isn't going away,'' he continued. "We'll be working with Facebook to conform Instagram and build the network.''
Instagram's roster of backers includes Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.
Facebook users flood the world's largest social network with images to share with friends, however the website hasn't proven to be an excellent stage for organizing pictures around topics - a forte that has made Pinterest a celebrity.
"Facebook is pushing into the Pinterest space,'' said analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies.
"The object about Instagram and Pinterest is they are really interesting inside the context of posting pictures around topics,'' he continued.
Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group said that Facebook is building a defense against Pinterest, which have been luring people's attention far from the social network.
"Instagram is an affordable competitive hedge against Pinterest,'' Enderle said.
"On the heart of both startups is picture indexing - they're just handled differently.''
While Bajarin mentioned the billion-dollar ticket for Instagram "boggling,'' Enderle contended that it might prove to be a bargain if it helps Facebook shine for its IPO on Wall Street.
Facebook in February filed for a stock offering and will raise up to $10 billion within the largest flotation ever by an online company on Wall Street.
Facebook - the leading social network in all but six countries, notably China and Russia - said it has greater than 845 million users, including 483 million who log in daily.
Facebook's value have been estimated at between $75 billion and $100 billion.
"The Instagram buy might possibly be worth tens of billions of greenbacks if it holds off Pinterest and Facebook remains on top,'' Enderle said.
"Given what Facebook is attempting to do - get an important valuation when it goes public - 1000000000 dollars is a trivial sum.''
- AFP
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