Monetizing isn't bad. But advertising is unimaginative. Ads is not an easy business. You have two sets of customers, i.e. users and marketers. Striking a balan

Monetizing isn't bad. But advertising is unimaginative. Ads is not an easy business. You have two sets of customers, i.e. users and marketers. Striking a balance between the needs of both of these sets is always a key. Also, you need to build necessary technology like ad servers, bidding tools, reporting & analytics etc. "Ads" are a product too. And building a great product takes time. > But they had three years to think about monetization, and the BEST plan they came up with was advertising. Not freemium, or selling products, or any other business model. Instagram is for-profit company and if their ARPU via advertising is significantly greater than other options then it's in their stockholders (currently FB and public markets) interest to go via advertising route. I'm sure they must have considered all the options internally. But reality is very few people are willing to pay for online products.