The Gram Turns Ten

According to news reports, yesterday was Instagram's 10th birthday. In case you forgot, Instagram was acquired by the Facebook group just two years after it was founded. So it's been in the fold for the last eight years.

According to the celebratory email sent to journalists, there are 900 million daily emoji reactions on Instagram, and 50% of users watch a video each day. I run one Instagram account, for a local running group, and you can see it here: Tyrone Harriers on Instagram.

As Byron reported here yesterday, a misguided committee of mostly Democrats at the US Congress has been working for years on a competition probe into the big tech companies, and has some half-baked proposals to break up Facebook. According to their crackpot plan, Instagram should be spun off.

Facebook hasn't disclosed how many people use Instagram since 2018, which is slightly annoying. Neither do they disclose Instagram's unique revenue, though it is rumoured to be the fastest-growing part of Facebook's advertising business, contributing about $20 billion in 2019.

Of course, it's because Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants Instagram to be seen as an indivisible part of the group, running on top of shared systems. They are merging messaging, shopping, and other operations.

In response to the Congressional committee the company said: "Facebook has built Instagram from a niche photo-sharing app with no monetization plans into the phenomenal success story that it is today—and which it never would have become without Facebook's investment of time, resources, and know-how". Quite so.