Want to know who created Instagram? Then you absolutely must read this article! In the next lines, you will not only find out who created Instagram, but I will also tell you the story of this successful platform.
Instagram has now become one of the most popular, famous and loved social networks in recent years, although in the last period it had to rely on new and rapidly growing social networks, including Tik Tok.
There are few left who do not have an account on Instagram. In many, they share moments from their daily lives on stories.
They enrich their profile with the most beautiful shots, also thanks to the increasingly powerful cameras implemented, year after year, by smartphone manufacturers.
And so Instagram also becomes an online diary, where the simplest moments are immortalized, such as a dinner in a restaurant, up to the most important in a person’s life, such as a wedding, graduation or birth. a kid.
Over time, new figures have developed particularly focused on the photographic world of Instagram, such as influencers and content creators. At some point, Instagram gained such influence that it started to have great potential in marketing and business.
So many, especially businesses and corporations, have started to leverage Instagram for this purpose. Instagram has facilitated this by introducing the company account and the possibility of sponsoring products and services by inserting special advertisements, which are banner advertisements.
However, the Instagram story is not as well-known as one might expect. For example, who created Instagram? This is probably a question that few people will be able to answer.
In this article, we will therefore delve into the history of Instagram, from its dawn to the phenomenon it has become today.
Who created Instagram and its origins
The foundation of Instagram dates back to 2010, specifically when the application was launched on the iTunes Store on October 6, 2010. As for the fateful question of who created Instagram, the people behind its birth are two: Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.
Initially, Instagram was to be called Burbn and was to be an app designed to facilitate reservations and check-in. A service similar to the current applications relating to the Booking and Trivago sites.
Then the idea was discarded and Krieger focused on the photos taken on the cellphone. And, as we all know, sharing photos from mobile phones became the cornerstone of the origin of Instagram.
The term Instagram derives from the merging of two very distinct words, instant camera and telegram. The symbol, on the other hand, has Italian origins.
During a study trip to Italy, Kevin Systrom brought with him a Holga, a camera whose photographs closely resemble those posted on Instagram. This experience was crucial because it inspired the young Systrom.
Obviously, the Instagram we know today is very different from what it was when it was first released. Suffice it to say that hashtags, now essential in posts and stories, were introduced in 2011.
In 2013, the possibility of posting short films was added in addition to photos. Then came Stories, which revolutionized Instagram’s social experience.
The acquisition by Facebook
After revealing who created Instagram, in the following paragraphs I will tell you about the evolution of the social network.
During those years Facebook was growing and also depopulating, the quintessential social network created by then-university student Mark Zuckerberg. Shortly after Instagram was founded, specifically on April 9, 2012 (less than two years later), Mark Zuckerberg announced the acquisition of Instagram and its 13 employees by Facebook.
In September of the same year, the acquisition was finalized, for a total cost of $741 million. Instagram’s union with Facebook has also brought about some changes within the social network itself.
For example, you can register directly with a Facebook account or connect Facebook to Instagram later. There is also the possibility to configure, from your profile settings, the automatic sharing of Instagram stories and publications on Facebook.
One of the biggest news: Instagram Stories
In the coming years, Instagram grew more and more. A turning point came around 2015 and 2016, a time when two pretty drastic changes happened to Instagram.
What created Instagram certainly did not let the ideas escape!
In October 2016, in particular, the Instagram application designed specifically for Windows 10 and available on the Microsoft Store was created and launched. An application for MacBook computers with Apple’s macOS system has not yet been designed.
In April of the same year, a renewed version for Windows Phone was launched (the previous one was from 2013) adapted for Windows 10 Mobile.
But the absolute novelty was the introduction of Instagram Stories, which took place in August 2016. Stories are temporary images and videos that a user can post by customizing them with filters , writings, tags, different types and music.
The post is valid for 24 hours, unless you put it in the “Featured Stories” or even “Still Stories” of your profile, a feature available from 2017.
This format was first launched by Snapchat and, given its huge success, it has also been adopted by Instagram. Then from Facebook, and in recent months also Twitter, which has added a very similar feature.
Instagram today, in 2021
We saw who created Instagram and traced its history. But how is Instagram today?
Since the introduction of stories in the Instagram directory, its growth, which was already in full swing, has increased exponentially.
In June 2018, Instagram hit the peak of one billion monthly users, a truly huge number, especially since exactly two years earlier monthly active users were around 500 million.
In 2018, the IGTV section was introduced, an Instagram section designed to upload vertical videos of longer duration than regular videos on Instagram, up to a maximum of 10 minutes. Since that time. Instagram has focused its attention on this last function and its direct and private messages.
The developers, in fact, work a lot live and aim to create an instant messaging application like Facebook did with Messenger, and with similar functionality to WhatsApp and Telegram.
In this regard, group video calls were introduced between 2018 and 2019 with a maximum of 4 participants allowed.
Instagram compatibility with devices and software
As mentioned earlier, this platform was founded in October 2010. In short, Instagram is now almost a teenager.
Initially, it was possible to use this social network only on iOS. Then, the service became compatible with any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch version iOS 3.1.2 or higher.
Since April 2012 it is also available for Android, from version 2.2 or higher. A year later, the version for Windows Phone was created, and it was not until 2016 that the versions for Windows 10 Mobile and for Windows 10 tablet PCs were released.
Initially, you could download media in 1:1 aspect ratio precisely because they could be viewed on the iPhone.
These restrictions were lifted in 2015, with the introduction of 1080 megapixels on this social network.
Who created Instagram: the story of the inventor
Instagram is now ten years old! In this paragraph, I want to delve deeper into how the idea of the creator of Instagram was born and how the platform has evolved rapidly over the years. Let’s talk a bit about who created Instagram.
This social network was born thanks to Kevin Systrom, an American entrepreneur and computer scientist from Massachusetts, with a degree in science and engineering management.
During his college years, he worked as an intern at Odeo, the company that founded Twitter. After graduating, he worked for two years at Google, handling Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Drive, and developing the Google Docs platform.
A true computer genius! After these different experiences for Google, the one who created Instagram starts working for the NextStop team. Here, he deepened his knowledge in the field of programming and founded Burbn, a localization and sharing service based on html5.
Burbn, with help from Mike Krieger, becomes an iPhone app.
But this project turns out to be unsuccessful due to its dispersivity and the difficulty of using the application. This causes the two boys to rethink their project once again.
They design a way for users to share and comment on photos, bringing Instagram to life! This time, Instagram turns out to be a success, a winning project. So successful that in its first year of life it has more than 10 million users.
More news on who created Instagram
The curiosity about who created Instagram didn’t stop there. Although he sold Instagram to Facebook 9 years ago, in 2012, Systrom continues to serve as CEO.
This lasts until October 2018, the month during which he definitively formalizes his resignation.
After 2010, which was the year of its launch on the web, Instagram is gaining popularity very quickly, with one million registered users in two months, 10 million in one year and one billion according to statistics from May 2019 . April 2012, Facebook acquired the service for around $1 billion.
As of October 2015, we record that over 40 billion photos had been uploaded. At that time, although hailed for its ability to make users interact easily, Instagram received a lot of criticism.
The reasons? Policy and user interface changes, allegations of censorship, and illegal or inappropriate content uploaded by users.
Other features and curiosities
This is the story of true computer and information geniuses, and even the choice of name is not accidental. With funding from Baseline Ventures and Andreesesen Horowitz, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have formed a team.
A team able to work on the many functionalities of Burbn, an application initially designed for check-in and reservation. However, the project was abandoned.
Krieger ultimately decided to focus on cellphone photos.
Subsequently, it was decided to rename the Instagram application, assigning it the most important functions, which we all know.
Ability to take photos with high definition filters for better photos, ability to support larger photos, ability to geotag and tag photos (to share your experiences with users).
Over time they have added many features, including uploading videos up to 60 seconds, gifs and various effects, and direct, or adding a messaging function to send photos to a user without publishing them.
As for the commercial part, we can speak of Advertising, or the insertion of sponsored advertising content (paying) available both for companies and for simple users).
In addition, Instagram has found a way to catalog our photos thanks to the invention of hashtags: these words preceded by hashtags (#) are intended to label our multimedia content.
Findings
In 10 years, the initial project of those who created Instagram has evolved a lot. The idea of an intimate and personal social network, a kind of memory album also accessible to friends, has changed.
As we’ve seen, it’s become a richer and more mature platform, but one capable of keeping users hooked, many of whom are exiled from Facebook.
What Instagram will be like in 10 years is hard to say. However, if he can uphold the original intuition, speak through beautiful photos and videos, and hold back the showcase of vanity celebrated by millions of selfies every day, he’ll have a good chance of surviving and thriving.
