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The Instagram Community - One Million and Counting

35 points by bjonathan 16y ago

dsuriano 16y ago
It's a great app.
- howcool 16y ago
  True but not just an app. The underlying success is that they have successfully mixed 4 existing services into 1 1) Facebook 2) Twitter 3) foursquare 4) photos http://www.appsafari.com/fun/14657/instagram/ http://www.appsafari.com/fun/14657/instagram/
wallflower 16y ago
Congratulations to Instagram! > We decided that if we were going to build a company, we wanted to focus on being really good at one thing. We saw mobile photos as an awesome opportunity to try out some new ideas. We spent 1 week prototyping a version that focused solely on photos. It was pretty awful. So we went back to creating a native version of Burbn. We actually got an entire version of Burbn done as an iPhone app, but it felt cluttered, and overrun with features. It was really difficult to decide to start from scratch, but we went out on a limb, and basically cut everything in the Burbn app except for its photo, comment, and like capabilities. What remained was Instagram. (We renamed because we felt it better captured what you were doing -- an instant telegram of sorts. It also sounded camera-y) http://www.quora.com/Instagram/What-is-the-story-behind-Instagram http://www.quora.com/Instagram/What-is-the-story-behind-Inst...
starnix17 16y ago
Any word on an Android app?
- joe-mccann 16y ago
  Poladroid appears to be the front-running competitor to Instagram as Poladroid is currently Android only as Instagram is iPhone only. http://poladroid.me http://poladroid.me (private beta) Easter egg on the site.
  - sbisker 16y ago
    How on earth is this name not copyright infringement? Either against Polaroid itself or against the Poladroid software package (http://www.poladroid.net/ http://www.poladroid.net/). That said it's a pretty cute pun; I hope they get away with it.
- mshafrir 16y ago
  Retro Camera / FxCamera as alternatives for now.
kirinkalia 16y ago
A million users in under three months is impressive. Now, how long before the critical 10M mark?
ivankirigin 16y ago
I love the app, but they should publish active user count - if any number at all. It really matters for an app with no little web presence and little content persistence.
swatermasysk 16y ago
1 million users and zero revenue. Why is this good?
- stevenp 16y ago
  I agree. I have a small app that has about 1,200 users and I make $30 per day in iAd revenue. Assuming similar numbers, Instagram could easily have $25k per day in revenue.
  - hugh3 16y ago
    Unless the ad drove away users, in which case they might only have 1200 users and $30 a day.
- bretthellman 16y ago
  Bec it's 1 million users. :)
zacharyz 16y ago
Now make with the revenue. Release some filter packs for 99 cents each and hopefully benefit from the 10-30% of your user base that will purchases some. After the initial rush AOL will buy you for 40 million.
narkee 16y ago
Maybe it's because I don't have an iPhone, or a smart phone, but I seriously don't understand instagram's insane adoption/appeal. It seems bizarre and not novel in any way. Mobile sharing has been around forever, and even my 2005 feature phone has filters built into it. Someone enlighten me.

35 points by bjonathan 16y ago

dsuriano 16y ago

It's a great app.

howcool 16y ago
True but not just an app. The underlying success is that they have successfully mixed 4 existing services into 1 1) Facebook 2) Twitter 3) foursquare 4) photos http://www.appsafari.com/fun/14657/instagram/ http://www.appsafari.com/fun/14657/instagram/

wallflower 16y ago

Congratulations to Instagram! > We decided that if we were going to build a company, we wanted to focus on being really good at one thing. We saw mobile photos as an awesome opportunity to try out some new ideas. We spent 1 week prototyping a version that focused solely on photos. It was pretty awful. So we went back to creating a native version of Burbn. We actually got an entire version of Burbn done as an iPhone app, but it felt cluttered, and overrun with features. It was really difficult to decide to start from scratch, but we went out on a limb, and basically cut everything in the Burbn app except for its photo, comment, and like capabilities. What remained was Instagram. (We renamed because we felt it better captured what you were doing -- an instant telegram of sorts. It also sounded camera-y) http://www.quora.com/Instagram/What-is-the-story-behind-Instagram http://www.quora.com/Instagram/What-is-the-story-behind-Inst...

starnix17 16y ago

Any word on an Android app?

joe-mccann 16y ago
Poladroid appears to be the front-running competitor to Instagram as Poladroid is currently Android only as Instagram is iPhone only. http://poladroid.me http://poladroid.me (private beta) Easter egg on the site.
- sbisker 16y ago
  How on earth is this name not copyright infringement? Either against Polaroid itself or against the Poladroid software package (http://www.poladroid.net/ http://www.poladroid.net/). That said it's a pretty cute pun; I hope they get away with it.
mshafrir 16y ago
Retro Camera / FxCamera as alternatives for now.

kirinkalia 16y ago

A million users in under three months is impressive. Now, how long before the critical 10M mark?

ivankirigin 16y ago

I love the app, but they should publish active user count - if any number at all. It really matters for an app with no little web presence and little content persistence.

swatermasysk 16y ago

1 million users and zero revenue. Why is this good?

stevenp 16y ago
I agree. I have a small app that has about 1,200 users and I make $30 per day in iAd revenue. Assuming similar numbers, Instagram could easily have $25k per day in revenue.
- hugh3 16y ago
  Unless the ad drove away users, in which case they might only have 1200 users and $30 a day.
bretthellman 16y ago
Bec it's 1 million users. :)

zacharyz 16y ago

Now make with the revenue. Release some filter packs for 99 cents each and hopefully benefit from the 10-30% of your user base that will purchases some. After the initial rush AOL will buy you for 40 million.

narkee 16y ago

Maybe it's because I don't have an iPhone, or a smart phone, but I seriously don't understand instagram's insane adoption/appeal. It seems bizarre and not novel in any way. Mobile sharing has been around forever, and even my 2005 feature phone has filters built into it. Someone enlighten me.