Instagram had 30 million monthly active users when they were acquired. Roughly 1/10th the size of Snapchat today. It was the growth curve that caught Facebook's

Instagram had 30 million monthly active users when they were acquired. Roughly 1/10th the size of Snapchat today. It was the growth curve that caught Facebook's attention of course. YouTube was a bleeding disaster of a business when Google scooped them up, for a price that was universally mocked as outrageously high. I'm skeptical even Twitter with their $6b in cash could absorb that type of mess and see it through. The problem you run into, in trying to buy interesting competitors, is they're not for sale for cheap if they're actually any good. That's the specific reason Instagram went for what was considered a very high price. When growth looks that good, the VCs will fund you indefinitely, so the acquirer has to pay a massive premium. In the post Flickr era you can't buy Instagrams for $50m.