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As a member of the relatively hip 20-something social set in New York, I can say with confidence that Instagram is "where it's at" with this group. The introduc

As a member of the relatively hip 20-something social set in New York, I can say with confidence that Instagram is "where it's at" with this group. The introduction of stories and other Snapchat-like features has dramatically increased Instagram's usage among my friends (and definitely snagged plenty of app-hours from the former). Like the article says, Instagram is absolutely an escape from the hostile interfaces and hostile posts that abound on core Facebook. It's still cool and it's still fun. Whatever the internal power dynamics, it seems unlikely that Facebook would be stupid enough to throw this away. What do they care if their bread gets buttered through the Instagram app? Another interesting thing to note about Instagram is that a high follower count has become a status symbol. As people invest time and effort in building a large following, their commitment to the platform increases. It wouldn't surprise me if Instagram accounts for more than half of Facebook's value in the near future.

bobwaycott 8y ago
> What do they care if their bread gets buttered through the Instagram app? Three things immediately come to mind: A. They paid a lot of money to acquire Instagram and want that investment to pay off. 2. There are users on Instagram from whom Facebook can extract value and profit. D. If there is a way to make a buck off a user and their activity on a Facebook property, rest assured FB will take the step to make that buck.
- ttul 8y ago
  A. Oh, it has paid off already. 2. Oh, yes. D. Uh huh.
- javiramos 8y ago
  I keep thinking that, in the grand scheme of things, the Instagram acquisition was a bargain.
ggg9990 8y ago
It’s not surprising that the young rich beautiful people like Instagram. But I still appreciate that Facebook, Reddit and other text-based platforms allow an ugly person with a dumpy apartment and rusty car to publish their thoughts with the same format that Bill Gates would have.
- alkonaut 8y ago
  I don’t see why beauty would improve the quality of Instagram posts, other than for people in the beauty business. For friends following friends (which I assume is the majority of users, I don’t follow a single person I don’t know personally and that doesn’t also follow me) beauty and glamour isn’t really important. I just post pix of holidays and kids to keep family up to date and entertain my friends. Yes I’m neither young, rich or beautiful. For thoughts in text I think twitter is a better platform than fb.
- _emacsomancer_ 8y ago
  What does Bill Gates have to do with this? (I was with you up to that point.)
reaperducer 8y ago
it seems unlikely that Facebook would be stupid enough to throw this away This sentiment expresses the difference between being 20 and being 40. Over the years, you will witness many companies snatching defeat from the jaws of victory for no fathomable reason.
code_duck 8y ago
Facebook has been steadily making Instagram worse since they acquired it, by adding more and more features. Basically, they’re turning it into Facebook, the existing product, because that’s what they know how to do. Currently, users in my Instagram social group are pretty unhappy with the change to a filtered feed, which produces a lack of visibility. This is exactly like the Facebook newsfeed, Where I can post something to my 2000, 500 friends… It gets no likes and no comments, compared to posting in a group with basically the same member where the same content receives plenty of attention, because it was actually displayed to the people who chose to follow me, without me giving Facebook money. There’s not much point in having 8,000 followers if they only show it to 2 percent of them.
- product50 8y ago
  Yeah - they have made it worse which is why the usage is 20x since the time they acquired it. At least have some logic before randomly typing things.
  - code_duck 8y ago
    There are many ways to assess app quality, and there are also many different things to which Instagram’s growth could be ascribed.
    - product50 8y ago
      Yeah - great response without going into details what those things are.
- 542458 8y ago
  > Facebook has been steadily making Instagram worse since they acquired it Define worse, because basically every metric I'm aware of says that instagram is more popular and has higher user engagement than ever. I think your "filtered feed" complaint is something that really ticks off a narrow segment of users, but that the remaining 99% doesn't care about at all. All they notice is a more interesting and relevant feed. Look at it this way - basically every major social network (instagram, twitter, facebook, youtube, etc) has implemented some sort of filtered feed. Every time some small segment of tech-savvy users or power users gets extremely annoyed and complains loudly, but I'm unaware of any network reversing the decision and going back to pure chronological - to me, that says that their internal engagement numbers overwhelmingly justify the decision.
mbesto 8y ago
> Another interesting thing to note about Instagram is that a high follower count has become a status symbol. Vanity is a helluva drug.
- pm90 8y ago
  It really is. As a relatively new user, I would follow a lot of, lets say, good looking folks. I quickly realized that it had a huge detrimental effect on my self perception and image. Now I mostly follow friends and people I know, and maybe a few politicians but very few celebrities and such.
  - cardiffspaceman 8y ago
    On Instagram I have not had the experience you had. I follow a lot of nice-to-look-at accounts and it makes me just a little bit happier. Also some are comedians and some are corporate media accounts for travel-related companies, things to maybe daydream about later. I don't visit every day but it is a nice break. I mostly ignore stories.
    - ggg9990 8y ago
      Do you have kids? I find that young single people get jealous and status conscious when looking at the rich and famous. As someone with a daughter and a paunch it makes me happy to get a glimpse of the beautiful people because I don’t actually want their life.
      - cardiffspaceman 8y ago
        > Do you have kids? I am a proud and highly entertained uncle with nieces and nephews ages 2 to 32. > I find that young single people get jealous But really the travel part is something that anyone could enjoy. People get interested in travel at all ages. The bug hit me only a couple of years ago but I know people way younger who want to travel.
  - bernardino 8y ago
robdachshund 8y ago
You're so hip bro. Thanks for the insight on the in crowd
- sctb 8y ago
  We've banned this account https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
pm90 8y ago
It has actually made me wonder why Instagram needs Facebook at all. If they had managed to stay independent, I'm sure they could have continued to do very, very well.
- woah 8y ago
  They were bought by Facebook a long time ago. Who can say how they would be doing if that hadn’t happened?
  - pm90 8y ago
    Honestly, the features that Facebook added isn't really innovative. I'm sure they must have a really nice, highly optimized backend and such but if SNAP can stay independent and IPO, I'm pretty sure Instagram could have managed to as well. If you think about it, SNAP would be doing a lot better if Facebook hadn't bolted on the stories feature on Instagram. The Facebook version of stories really really sucks. All in hindsight of course. But it seems like a shame, a real missed opportunity to create value and stay independent at the same time.
    - ggg9990 8y ago
      Facebook’s value add isn’t features, it’s money (in the form of ad sales).
- mi100hael 8y ago
  Instagram was barely two years old when FB acquired them for $1B along with a promise to allow Ig to continue to operate independently. It'd be very hard for most founders/investors to pass up such a deal, particularly with an app that was even more of a one-trick-pony at the time.
  - pm90 8y ago
    SNAP was offered bucketloads of cash and refused. WhatsApp agreed to be acquired but now both founders are gone. The impression I get about FB from these stories is that its pretty much a Faustian bargain to join them...
ajcodez 8y ago
Same in Toronto. 22+ is Instagram only. A few years ago you would add each other on Facebook. Now it’s Phone or Instagram socially, Twitter in tech circles, LinkedIn in business circles. People over 30 yrs will add you on Facebook but nobody younger bothers anymore.

bobwaycott 8y ago

> What do they care if their bread gets buttered through the Instagram app? Three things immediately come to mind: A. They paid a lot of money to acquire Instagram and want that investment to pay off. 2. There are users on Instagram from whom Facebook can extract value and profit. D. If there is a way to make a buck off a user and their activity on a Facebook property, rest assured FB will take the step to make that buck.

ttul 8y ago
A. Oh, it has paid off already. 2. Oh, yes. D. Uh huh.
javiramos 8y ago
I keep thinking that, in the grand scheme of things, the Instagram acquisition was a bargain.

ggg9990 8y ago

It’s not surprising that the young rich beautiful people like Instagram. But I still appreciate that Facebook, Reddit and other text-based platforms allow an ugly person with a dumpy apartment and rusty car to publish their thoughts with the same format that Bill Gates would have.

alkonaut 8y ago
I don’t see why beauty would improve the quality of Instagram posts, other than for people in the beauty business. For friends following friends (which I assume is the majority of users, I don’t follow a single person I don’t know personally and that doesn’t also follow me) beauty and glamour isn’t really important. I just post pix of holidays and kids to keep family up to date and entertain my friends. Yes I’m neither young, rich or beautiful. For thoughts in text I think twitter is a better platform than fb.
_emacsomancer_ 8y ago
What does Bill Gates have to do with this? (I was with you up to that point.)

reaperducer 8y ago

it seems unlikely that Facebook would be stupid enough to throw this away This sentiment expresses the difference between being 20 and being 40. Over the years, you will witness many companies snatching defeat from the jaws of victory for no fathomable reason.

code_duck 8y ago

Facebook has been steadily making Instagram worse since they acquired it, by adding more and more features. Basically, they’re turning it into Facebook, the existing product, because that’s what they know how to do. Currently, users in my Instagram social group are pretty unhappy with the change to a filtered feed, which produces a lack of visibility. This is exactly like the Facebook newsfeed, Where I can post something to my 2000, 500 friends… It gets no likes and no comments, compared to posting in a group with basically the same member where the same content receives plenty of attention, because it was actually displayed to the people who chose to follow me, without me giving Facebook money. There’s not much point in having 8,000 followers if they only show it to 2 percent of them.

product50 8y ago
Yeah - they have made it worse which is why the usage is 20x since the time they acquired it. At least have some logic before randomly typing things.
- code_duck 8y ago
  There are many ways to assess app quality, and there are also many different things to which Instagram’s growth could be ascribed.
  - product50 8y ago
    Yeah - great response without going into details what those things are.
542458 8y ago
> Facebook has been steadily making Instagram worse since they acquired it Define worse, because basically every metric I'm aware of says that instagram is more popular and has higher user engagement than ever. I think your "filtered feed" complaint is something that really ticks off a narrow segment of users, but that the remaining 99% doesn't care about at all. All they notice is a more interesting and relevant feed. Look at it this way - basically every major social network (instagram, twitter, facebook, youtube, etc) has implemented some sort of filtered feed. Every time some small segment of tech-savvy users or power users gets extremely annoyed and complains loudly, but I'm unaware of any network reversing the decision and going back to pure chronological - to me, that says that their internal engagement numbers overwhelmingly justify the decision.

mbesto 8y ago

> Another interesting thing to note about Instagram is that a high follower count has become a status symbol. Vanity is a helluva drug.

pm90 8y ago
It really is. As a relatively new user, I would follow a lot of, lets say, good looking folks. I quickly realized that it had a huge detrimental effect on my self perception and image. Now I mostly follow friends and people I know, and maybe a few politicians but very few celebrities and such.
- cardiffspaceman 8y ago
  On Instagram I have not had the experience you had. I follow a lot of nice-to-look-at accounts and it makes me just a little bit happier. Also some are comedians and some are corporate media accounts for travel-related companies, things to maybe daydream about later. I don't visit every day but it is a nice break. I mostly ignore stories.
  - ggg9990 8y ago
    Do you have kids? I find that young single people get jealous and status conscious when looking at the rich and famous. As someone with a daughter and a paunch it makes me happy to get a glimpse of the beautiful people because I don’t actually want their life.
    - cardiffspaceman 8y ago
      > Do you have kids? I am a proud and highly entertained uncle with nieces and nephews ages 2 to 32. > I find that young single people get jealous But really the travel part is something that anyone could enjoy. People get interested in travel at all ages. The bug hit me only a couple of years ago but I know people way younger who want to travel.
- bernardino 8y ago

robdachshund 8y ago

You're so hip bro. Thanks for the insight on the in crowd

sctb 8y ago
We've banned this account https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

pm90 8y ago

It has actually made me wonder why Instagram needs Facebook at all. If they had managed to stay independent, I'm sure they could have continued to do very, very well.

woah 8y ago
They were bought by Facebook a long time ago. Who can say how they would be doing if that hadn’t happened?
- pm90 8y ago
  Honestly, the features that Facebook added isn't really innovative. I'm sure they must have a really nice, highly optimized backend and such but if SNAP can stay independent and IPO, I'm pretty sure Instagram could have managed to as well. If you think about it, SNAP would be doing a lot better if Facebook hadn't bolted on the stories feature on Instagram. The Facebook version of stories really really sucks. All in hindsight of course. But it seems like a shame, a real missed opportunity to create value and stay independent at the same time.
  - ggg9990 8y ago
    Facebook’s value add isn’t features, it’s money (in the form of ad sales).
mi100hael 8y ago
Instagram was barely two years old when FB acquired them for $1B along with a promise to allow Ig to continue to operate independently. It'd be very hard for most founders/investors to pass up such a deal, particularly with an app that was even more of a one-trick-pony at the time.
- pm90 8y ago
  SNAP was offered bucketloads of cash and refused. WhatsApp agreed to be acquired but now both founders are gone. The impression I get about FB from these stories is that its pretty much a Faustian bargain to join them...

ajcodez 8y ago

Same in Toronto. 22+ is Instagram only. A few years ago you would add each other on Facebook. Now it’s Phone or Instagram socially, Twitter in tech circles, LinkedIn in business circles. People over 30 yrs will add you on Facebook but nobody younger bothers anymore.