(2022-08-29) Chin Instagram The Bigger Picture

Cedric Chin Instagram case - The Bigger Picture. Instagram’s origins may be traced back to the personal life of its co-founder Kevin Systrom. As a junior at Stanford, Systrom built a side project called Photobox — a website that allowed people to upload images for sharing or printing. It was often used at Systrom’s fraternity parties.

Ron Conway was confused and asked “what do you guys do again?”. And when Systrom tried to explain the app, it became clear that Conway wasn’t excited … despite the firm’s investment. To Conway, it seemed like Burbn was just trying to hit all the buzzwords — mobile, social, and location-based. Systrom had experienced this lukewarm reaction before, but Conway’s reaction was the tipping point. He knew Burbn was fun, but what problem did it solve for its users?

Systrom and Krieger decided that they first needed to ask what problem they were solving, and then go and try to solve it in the simplest way possible. They made a list of the top three things people liked about Burbn. It was ‘plans’, prizes, and photos.

While Systrom went on vacation with his girlfriend (and future wife) Nicole Schuetz, she warned that no one would use his new app. Smartphone photos wouldn’t be good enough — Schuetz protested that the photos she took were not as good as their friend’s Hochmuth’s photos. But Systrom said that Hochmuth’s smartphone photos were put through filter apps.

Upon returning to his hotel, Systrom researched how to code up a filter. He played with Photoshop for a bit, eventually emerging with ‘X-Pro II’, which he promptly applied to a dog photo. This would be the first-ever photo posted on the app. The date: July 16, 2010.

On October 6, 2010, Instagram launched to the public. Thanks to people like Jack Dorsey, who would cross-post his Instagram photos to his 1.6 million Twitter followers, the app went viral. On its first day, there were 25,000 people using Instagram. By the end of the week, it was 100,000. Within two months, it would be two million users

With the benefit of hindsight, it appears Instagram launched with perfect timing. Smartphones were starting to become mainstream and millions of new users didn’t know what to do with their low-quality phone cameras.

In early April 2012, Instagram was about to close a $50 million venture round at a US$500 million valuation

I want to buy your company,” Zuckerberg said.

On April 9, 2012 the news went public. Facebook acquired Instagram, with its thirteen employees, for US$1 billion in cash and stock.