Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg very recently acquired photo-sharing service Instagram for $1 billion (a 50% discount) but besides mention that Facebook will be integrating some of Instagram’s features, nobody seems to know what he wanted the service for. Some feel that Zuck may have jumped the gun on the purchase.

There is still a possibility that Instagram will hemorrhage users should it be moved in a direction that its 36 million-odd users don’t agree with, despite assurances from Zuckerberg and Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom that the service will remain unchanged. Instagram was unprofitable when Facebook acquired the company so it may have been acquired on the strength of its user adoption rate, seen when the Android version of the app managed to hoover up 1 million new users in under 24 hours.

But, as Alex Wilhelm from The Next Web has pointed out, Zuckerberg has felt threatened by Twitter’s rapid growth in the past. Later he admitted that he was overreacting to Twitter’s user uptake but it is possible that the explosive expansion of Instagram may have triggered his spider-senses.

In scooping up Instagram Facebook have either secured the next big thing or dropped a wad of cash off the side of the cliff. It all depends on whether Zuck and co. can figure out how to monetise it and whether users will stick around when they do.

Source: The Next Web