The Birth of an Online Culture

Instagram began on July 16, 2010, and the world of social media has never been the same. Thanks to Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the world has had an image-based social media platform used by over 500 million people.

Instagram was officially released on the iOS App Store on October 6th of the same year. The Android version was released on April 3, 2012, and just to show off how popular it became within the span of a couple of years, there were over a million downloads that day.

Side by side above are the first and current icons for Instagram. I remember the first icon and how the overall user interface looked and worked, but a lot has changed since Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion on April 9, 2012. From then all the way up to now Instagram has been through multiple interface changes that its users have either really loved or REALLY hated.

Instagram is one of the most dominant social media platforms today with over 40 billion shared photos over the past decade, with 95 million shared daily. When video was first introduced, a whopping 5 million videos were uploaded in the first 24 hours!

Where there is a versatile social media platform, there will always be those who manage to work the algorithm in their favor. We know these people as Instagram "influencers" and they can make up to $100,000 dollars for sponsored content! Influencers are known for creating content around specific topics or themes while building communities on the platform.

Instagram has become extremely popular with those between the ages of 18 and 35 because of the fast-paced rate of content and visual nature. The rate of usage on the platform grows every day and there is no sign of the platform slowing down. Now excuse me while I go take a picture of my food and post it with 20+ hashtags.

Sources:
https://time.com/4408374/instagram-anniversary/
http://www.pastbook.com/txt/25-instagram-facts-that-you-want-to-know/