Facebook's core feature, apart from the graph, is photo-sharing. Instagram is the only company at the moment who has any real chance at building a base to compe

Facebook's core feature, apart from the graph, is photo-sharing. Instagram is the only company at the moment who has any real chance at building a base to compete with Facebook on photos right now. Looking at this from a $/engineer or $/user seems misleading. I have got to imagine that managing future competition motivates this move. That being said, it seems absurdly expensive. I'm surprised they didn't try to add photo-filters to their mobile app first. I don't think people are going to spend the next decade taking retro pictures. Just like with location - they could've added the feature to their app, people can "be part of location" without having to join a new network. Over time, most people get bored of filtering their photos and move on. By putting that feature in mobile app, Facebook likely could've done a bit put the curb on Instagram from ever pivoting away from filters into a full fledged photo-sharing network and saved themselves a billion.