Instagram is an online mobile social network photo-sharing, video-sharing, and social networking service that allows users to take photos and videos, and share them either publicly or privately on its website or mobile app, as well as through a variety of other social networking platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr. One of Instagram's unique when it first started was that it cropped photos to a square shape, like Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid SX-70 photos, instead of the 4:3 aspect ratio normally used by cellphone cameras. In August 2015, version 7.5 was released, allowing users to upload media captured in any aspect ratio. Users can also apply digital filters to their images. Videos on Instagram debuted with a 640x640 fixed resolution and maximum 15-second limit in June 2013; resolutions now include up to 1080p after July 2015 and the maximum length increased to 60 seconds after January 2016. ^[2]

Instagram was founded by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, and launched in October 2010 as a free mobile app. The service rapidly gained popularity, with over 100 million active users as of April 2012 and over 300 million as of December 2014. Instagram is distributed through the Apple App Store and Google Play. Support for the app is available for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Windows 10 devices and Android handsets, while third-party Instagram apps are available for BlackBerry 10 and Nokia-Symbian Devices.

Instagram was acquired by Facebook in April 2012 for approximately US$ 1 billion in cash and stock when it only had 13 employees. In 2013, Instagram grew by 23%, while Facebook, as the parent company, only grew by 3%.

In September 2018, both Systrom and Krieger left Instagram.

Instagram began development in San Francisco, when Systrom and Krieger chose to focus their multi-featured HTML5 check-in project, Burbn, on mobile photography.

As Krieger reasoned, Burbn became too similar to Foursquare, and both realised that it has gone too far. And for that, Burbn pivoted to become more focused. The word "Instagram" is a portmanteau of "instant camera" and "telegram".

On March 5, 2010, Systrom closed a US$500,000 seed funding round with Baseline Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz while working on Burbn. Josh Riedel then joined the company as Community Manager. Shayne Sweeney joined in November 2010 as an engineer and Jessica Zollman was hired as a Community Evangelist in August 2011.

In January 2011, Instagram added hashtags to help users discover both photographs and each other. Instagram encourages users to make tags both specific and relevant, rather than tagging generic words like "photo", to make photographs stand out and to attract like-minded Instagram users. In September, version 2.0 went live in the App Store (iOS) and included new and live filters, instant tilt–shift, high resolution photographs, optional borders, one-click rotation, and an updated icon. On February 2, 2011, an announcement revealed that Instagram had raised US$7 million in Series A funding from a variety of investors, including Benchmark Capital, Jack Dorsey, Chris Sacca (through Capital fund), and Adam D'Angelo. The deal valued Instagram at around $25 million.

On April 3, 2012, Instagram was released for Android phones running the 2.2 Froyo version of the OS, and it was downloaded more than one million times in less than one day. That same week, Instagram raised US$50 million from venture capitalists for a share of the company; the process valued Instagram at US$500 million. Over the next three months, Instagram was rated more than one million times on Google Play and was the fifth app to ever reach one million ratings on Google Play—as of April 2013, it had been rated nearly four million times.

Facebook made an offer to purchase Instagram, along with its 13 employees, for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock in April 2012, with a plan to keep the company independently managed.

Britain's Office of Fair Trading approved the deal on August 14, 2012, and on August 22, 2012, the Federal Trade Commission in the U.S. closed its investigation, allowing the deal to proceed. On September 6, 2012, the deal between Instagram and Facebook was officially closed.

On April 12, 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram for approximately US$1 billion in cash and stock.

The deal, which was made just prior to Facebook's scheduled IPO, cost about a quarter of Facebook's cash-on-hand, according to figures documented at the end of 2011.

The deal was for a company characterised as having "lots of buzz but no business model", and the price was contrasted with the US$35 million Yahoo! paid for Flickr in 2005, a website that has after become among the 50 most popular in the world.

Mark Zuckerberg noted that Facebook was "committed to building and growing Instagram independently", in contrast to its past practice. According to multiple reports, the deal netted Systrom US$400 million based on his ownership stake in the business. The exact purchase price was US$300 million in cash and 23 million shares of stock.

On December 17, 2012, Instagram updated its Terms of Service, granting itself the right—starting on January 16, 2013—to sell users' photos to third parties without notification or compensation.

The criticism from privacy advocates, consumers, the National Geographic Society, and celebrities like Kim Kardashian prompted Instagram to issue a statement retracting the controversial terms; regardless, the issue resulted in the loss of a portion of Instagram's user-base, as former users switched to additional photo-sharing services, which reported an increase in usage.

In January 2013, it was confirmed that Instagram had asked for photo identification as a form of verification due to unspecified violations.

Following Emily White's appointment to the position of chief operating officer in March 2013, she stated in September 2013 that the company should be ready to start selling advertising by September 2014 as a way to generate business from a popular entity that hadn't yet created profit for its parent company. In September 2013, Instagram reaffirmed its commitment to free and open access to its smart-phone app for users. During an interview with Women's Wear Daily

On October 22, 2013, throughout the Nokia World event, held at Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Systrom confirmed the impending release of the official Instagram app for the Windows Phone. On November 21, 2013, the official Instagram Beta for Windows Phone was released to Windows Phone 8 to allow Windows Phone users faster access to Instagram services; although, at the time of release, the app was still under development.

Instagram introduced sponsored post advertising targeting US users in November 2013, and UK users in September 2014.^[6]

On December 12, 2013, Instagram added Direct, a feature that allows users to send photos to specific people directly from the app.

Instagram's primary intention with the Direct feature is to compete against messaging services, including Snapchat.

On March 11, 2014, Instagram released an updated Android app with performance improvements and a flatter interface.

The update was primarily intended to reduce the app's file size and resource usage, and it was optimised for and tested on low-end smartphones sold in emerging markets, such as the Samsung Galaxy Y, which was popular in Brazil at the time.

The company's Global Head of Business and Brand Development—a new position for Instagram—was announced in mid-August 2014.

Facebook's former Regional Director James Quarles was assigned the role, which manages Instagram’s revenue strategy, in addition to both the marketing and sales teams.

Quarles will report directly to Systrom throughout a tenure in which he'll develop new “monetization products”, as explained by a company representative to the media.

Since the app's launch it had used the Foursquare API to provide named location tagging. In early 2014, after being purchased by Facebook, the company was switched to using Facebook Places.

On October 22, 2015, Instagram launched Boomerang, an app where you shoot a one-second burst of five photos that are turned into a silent video that plays forwards and then reverses in a loop.

On May 11, 2016, Instagram updated its app design with thinner icons and a pinker, more abstract logo.

On October 13, 2016, Instagram published a desktop client for the first time on Windows 10, which can be downloaded via the Windows Store.

Users can upload photographs and short videos, follow additional users' feeds and geotag images with longitude and latitude coordinates, or the name of a location. Every year, Instagram released Top 10 Instagram geotagged locations in the world, in pictures. Users can connect their Instagram account to additional social networking sites, enabling them to share uploaded photos to those sites. As of June 2013, users can connect their Instagram accounts to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr.

In 2012, Instagram created web profiles which allows users to use their Instagram account like a social media site.

This gave users a web profile featuring a selection of recently shared photographs, biographical information, and additional personal details.

The web feed is a simpler version of the phone app, mimicking the look and feel users are already accustomed to.

In December 2013, Instagram added a feature named Instagram Direct that allows users to send photos only to a specific user or group of users, rather than having it be viewable by all.

This was viewed as a response to the popularity of services like Snapchat.

In August 2015, Instagram allowed users to start using non square images as part of the feature set.

On October 29, 2015, Instagram announced that it would allow advertisers to buy carousel ads to expose company brands to more people.

On May 31, 2016, Instagram announced the launch of new tools for business accounts, including new business profiles, analytics and the ability to turn Instagram posts into ads directly from the Instagram app itself.

New business dashboard tools, named Instagram Insights, which includes business profiles and promotion options.

Instagram Insights will first roll out in US, Australia and New Zealand then be available in all regions globally by the end of 2016.

On August 18, 2016, Instagram announced to launch a new feature called Instagram Events video channel on its Explore page that uses an algorithm to curate user-generated videos from major events.

The new explore tab was introduced in mid-2012 in which 21 photos are featured when a user clicks the tab second from the left on the bottom bar of the Instagram app.

The photos must be of a public user whose profile isn't set to private.

This section of Instagram is where users can search for specific users or particular hashtags that interest them.

Instagram offers a number of photographic filters that users can apply to their images:

In December 2014, Slumber, Crema, Ludwig, Aden, and Perpetua were five new philtres to be added to the Instagram philtre family.

Another feature, the Lux effect, allows you to quickly adjust the exposure and contrast through a simple 100-point slider.

This editing tool allows you to control the brightness to the saturation levels of each photograph.

Initially a purely photo-sharing service, Instagram incorporated video sharing in June 2013, allowing its users to record and share videos lasting for up to 15 seconds.

The addition was seen by a few in the technology media as Facebook's attempt at competing with Twitter's Vine video-sharing application.

In the early quarter of 2016, Instagram increased the 15 seconds limit on videos to 60 seconds.

On August 2, 2016, Instagram launched a new feature called Instagram Stories.

Instagram Stories allows users to share photos and videos, which will disappear after 24 hours and won’t appear on the user's profile grid or in their feed.

On December 12, 2013 at the press event in New York, Instagram founder Kevin Systrom announced the introduction of private photo and video sharing feature called Instagram Direct. In September 2015, Instagram Direct received a major update, adding new features such as instant messaging, adding more than one user & sharing more than one photos in a single conversation, and sharing post & profiles from feeds directly to the user.

On December 17, 2012, Instagram announced a change to its terms of use, stating that "you agree that a business or additional entity might pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connexion with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you".

There was no obvious option for users to opt out of the changed terms of use without deleting their accounts, and the move garnered severe criticism from privacy advocates as well as consumers.

After one day, Instagram apologised saying that it would remove the controversial language from its terms of use.

Kevin Systrom, a co-founder of Instagram, responded to the controversy, stating:

The December 2012 change to the Instagram terms of use additionally introduced an arbitration clause, which remained even after the language pertaining to advertising and user content had been modified.

The company acted quickly in response to a 2013 investigation from the BBC regarding the role of Instagram in sales of illicit drugs. The BBC discovered that users, mostly located in the US, were posting images of drugs they were selling and then completing transactions via instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp Messenger. Corresponding hashtags have been blocked as part of the company's response and a spokesperson engaged with the BBC, explaining:

In October 2013, Instagram deleted the account of Canadian photographer Petra Collins after Collins posted a photo of herself in which pubic hair was visible beneath her bikini bottom, Collins claims the account deletion was unfounded because it didn't break any of Instagram's terms and conditions.

In January 2015, in a similar incident to Collins's, Instagram deleted Australian Photography and Fashion Agency Sticks and Stones Agency's Instagram account because of a photograph including pubic hair sticking out of bikini bottoms.

Instagram has additionally been criticised for censoring women's bodies, but not men's, particularly through the Free the Nipple Campaign.

In March 2016, The Daily Star reported 'one million' explicit porn films found on Instagram.

The videos were unearthed by tech blogger Jed Ismael, who says he's discovered over one million porn films on the site.

On May 11, 2016, Instagram updated to 8.0, changing the interface theme to a whiter theme, along with the app icon to a theme similar to one as an option for Microsoft PowerPoint. This generated negative feedback from a large number of people.

Facebook owned

Third party

Instagram was the runner-up for "Best Mobile App" at the 2010 TechCrunch Crunchies in January 2011. In May 2011, Fast Company listed CEO Kevin Systrom at number 66 in the "The 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2011". In June 2011, Inc. included co-founders Systrom and Krieger in its 2011 "30 Under 30" list.

Instagram won "Best Locally Made App" in the SF Weekly Web Awards in September 2011. 7x7Magazine' s September 2011 issue featured Systrom and Krieger on the cover of their “The Hot 20 2011” issue. In December 2011, Apple Inc. named Instagram "App of the Year" for 2011. In 2015, Instagram was named #1 by Mashable on its list of "The 100 best iPhone apps of all time," noting Instagram as "one of the most influential social networks in the world."

Users can upload photographs and short videos, follow additional users' feeds and geotag images with longitude and latitude coordinates, or the name of a location. Every year, Instagram released Top 10 Instagram geotagged locations in the world, in pictures. Users can connect their Instagram account to additional social networking sites, enabling them to share uploaded photos to those sites. As of June 2013, users can connect their Instagram accounts to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Flickr.

In 2012, Instagram created web profiles which allows users to use their Instagram account like a social media site.

This gave users a web profile featuring a selection of recently shared photographs, biographical information, and additional personal details.

The web feed is a simpler version of the phone app, mimicking the look and feel users are already accustomed to.

In December 2013, Instagram added a feature named Instagram Direct that allows users to send photos only to a specific user or group of users, rather than having it be viewable by all.

This was viewed as a response to the popularity of services like Snapchat.

In August 2015, Instagram allowed users to start using non square images as part of the feature set.

On October 29, 2015, Instagram announced that it would allow advertisers to buy carousel ads to expose company brands to more people.

On May 31, 2016, Instagram announced the launch of new tools for business accounts, including new business profiles, analytics and the ability to turn Instagram posts into ads directly from the Instagram app itself.

New business dashboard tools, named Instagram Insights, which includes business profiles and promotion options.

Instagram Insights will first roll out in US, Australia and New Zealand then be available in all regions globally by the end of 2016.

On August 18, 2016, Instagram announced to launch a new feature called Instagram Events video channel on its Explore page that uses an algorithm to curate user-generated videos from major events.

The new explore tab was introduced in mid-2012 in which 21 photos are featured when a user clicks the tab second from the left on the bottom bar of the Instagram app.

The photos must be of a public user whose profile isn't set to private.

This section of Instagram is where users can search for specific users or particular hashtags that interest them.

Instagram offers a number of photographic filters that users can apply to their images:

In December 2014, Slumber, Crema, Ludwig, Aden, and Perpetua were five new philtres to be added to the Instagram philtre family.

Another feature, the Lux effect, allows you to quickly adjust the exposure and contrast through a simple 100-point slider.

This editing tool allows you to control the brightness to the saturation levels of each photograph.

Initially a purely photo-sharing service, Instagram incorporated video sharing in June 2013, allowing its users to record and share videos lasting for up to 15 seconds.

The addition was seen by a few in the technology media as Facebook's attempt at competing with Twitter's Vine video-sharing application.

In the early quarter of 2016, Instagram increased the 15 seconds limit on videos to 60 seconds.

On August 2, 2016, Instagram launched a new feature called Instagram Stories.

Instagram Stories allows users to share photos and videos, which will disappear after 24 hours and won’t appear on the user's profile grid or in their feed.

On December 12, 2013 at the press event in New York, Instagram founder Kevin Systrom announced the introduction of private photo and video sharing feature called Instagram Direct. In September 2015, Instagram Direct received a major update, adding new features such as instant messaging, adding more than one user & sharing more than one photos in a single conversation, and sharing post & profiles from feeds directly to the user.

On December 17, 2012, Instagram announced a change to its terms of use, stating that "you agree that a business or additional entity might pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connexion with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you".

There was no obvious option for users to opt out of the changed terms of use without deleting their accounts, and the move garnered severe criticism from privacy advocates as well as consumers.

After one day, Instagram apologised saying that it would remove the controversial language from its terms of use.

Kevin Systrom, a co-founder of Instagram, responded to the controversy, stating:

The December 2012 change to the Instagram terms of use additionally introduced an arbitration clause, which remained even after the language pertaining to advertising and user content had been modified.

The company acted quickly in response to a 2013 investigation from the BBC regarding the role of Instagram in sales of illicit drugs. The BBC discovered that users, mostly located in the US, were posting images of drugs they were selling and then completing transactions via instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp Messenger. Corresponding hashtags have been blocked as part of the company's response and a spokesperson engaged with the BBC, explaining:

In October 2013, Instagram deleted the account of Canadian photographer Petra Collins after Collins posted a photo of herself in which pubic hair was visible beneath her bikini bottom, Collins claims the account deletion was unfounded because it didn't break any of Instagram's terms and conditions.

In January 2015, in a similar incident to Collins's, Instagram deleted Australian Photography and Fashion Agency Sticks and Stones Agency's Instagram account because of a photograph including pubic hair sticking out of bikini bottoms.

Instagram has additionally been criticised for censoring women's bodies, but not men's, particularly through the Free the Nipple Campaign.

In March 2016, The Daily Star reported 'one million' explicit porn films found on Instagram.

The videos were unearthed by tech blogger Jed Ismael, who says he's discovered over one million porn films on the site.

On May 11, 2016, Instagram updated to 8.0, changing the interface theme to a whiter theme, along with the app icon to a theme similar to one as an option for Microsoft PowerPoint. This generated negative feedback from a large number of people.

Facebook owned

Third party

Instagram was the runner-up for "Best Mobile App" at the 2010 TechCrunch Crunchies in January 2011. In May 2011, Fast Company listed CEO Kevin Systrom at number 66 in the "The 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2011". In June 2011, Inc. included co-founders Systrom and Krieger in its 2011 "30 Under 30" list.

Instagram won "Best Locally Made App" in the SF Weekly Web Awards in September 2011. 7x7Magazine' s September 2011 issue featured Systrom and Krieger on the cover of their “The Hot 20 2011” issue. In December 2011, Apple Inc. named Instagram "App of the Year" for 2011. In 2015, Instagram was named #1 by Mashable on its list of "The 100 best iPhone apps of all time," noting Instagram as "one of the most influential social networks in the world."

Instagram was listed among Time

Instagram's users are divided equally with fifty percent iPhone owners and fifty percent Android owners.

While instagram has a neutral gender-bias format, 68 percent of Instagram users are female while 32 percent are male.

Instagram's geographical use is shown to favour urban areas as seventeen percent of US adults who live in urban areas use instagram while only eleven percent of adults in suburban and rural areas do so.

While Instagram might appear to be one of the most widely used sites for photo sharing, only seven percent of daily photo uploads, among the top four photo-sharing platforms, come from Instagram.

Instagram has been proven to attract the younger generation with ninety percent of the 150 million users under the age of 35.

From June 2012 to June 2013, Instagram approximately doubled their number of users.

As regards income, fifteen percent of US internet users who make less than $30,000 per year use Instagram, while fourteen percent of those making $30,000 to $50,000, and twelve percent of users who make more than $50,000 per year do so.

With respect to the education demographic, respondents with a few college education proved to be the most active on Instagram with 23%.

Following behind, college graduates consist of eighteen percent and users with a high school diploma or less make up 15%.

Among these Instagram users, twenty-four percent say they use the app several times a day.

The "Weekend Hashtag Project" is a series featuring designated themes and hashtags chosen by Instagram's Community Team. Followers receive the weekend's project every Friday, and each project encourages participants to post creative photographs according to the designated theme each weekend.

Throwback Thursday is a widely used trend on Instagram where users post pictures from the past with the hashtag #TBT. This trend usually includes pictures of users' early childhood, past special occasions, or monumental events. This popular trend started in 2011 shortly after Instagram introduced the capabilities of hashtags on pictures. Notwithstanding according to Google trends throwback Thursday’s popularity didn’t spike until February 2012. This trend has reached popularity through celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Molly Sims.

Selfie, a self-portrait photograph typically taken with a mobile phone or digital camera, has become a trending topic on Instagram fitting the “word of the year” as announced by Oxford English Dictionary in November 2013. Selfies attract a wide range of viewers as seen by the second most-liked picture on instagram from Justin Bieber’s instagram account. Bieber’s selfie with Selena Gomez acquired 1.82 million likes. This trend has sparked interest within the music industry as well with the debut of the song "Selfie" by The Chainsmokers in January 2014.

Finstagram is a portmanteau of the words "fake" and "Instagram."

Usually, the account is meant to be a more private depiction of the user.

Finstagrams are commonly used by teens as a way to escape the pressures of expectations from their main account.

On December 17, 2012, Instagram announced a change to its terms of use, stating that "you agree that a business or additional entity might pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connexion with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you".

There was no obvious option for users to opt out of the changed terms of use without deleting their accounts, and the move garnered severe criticism from privacy advocates as well as consumers.

After one day, Instagram apologised saying that it would remove the controversial language from its terms of use.

Kevin Systrom, a co-founder of Instagram, responded to the controversy, stating:

The December 2012 change to the Instagram terms of use additionally introduced an arbitration clause, which remained even after the language pertaining to advertising and user content had been modified.

The company acted quickly in response to a 2013 investigation from the BBC regarding the role of Instagram in sales of illicit drugs. The BBC discovered that users, mostly located in the US, were posting images of drugs they were selling and then completing transactions via instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp Messenger. Corresponding hashtags have been blocked as part of the company's response and a spokesperson engaged with the BBC, explaining:

In October 2013, Instagram deleted the account of Canadian photographer Petra Collins after Collins posted a photo of herself in which pubic hair was visible beneath her bikini bottom, Collins claims the account deletion was unfounded because it didn't break any of Instagram's terms and conditions.

In January 2015, in a similar incident to Collins's, Instagram deleted Australian Photography and Fashion Agency Sticks and Stones Agency's Instagram account because of a photograph including pubic hair sticking out of bikini bottoms.

Instagram has additionally been criticised for censoring women's bodies, but not men's, particularly through the Free the Nipple Campaign.

In March 2016, The Daily Star reported 'one million' explicit porn films found on Instagram.

The videos were unearthed by tech blogger Jed Ismael, who says he's discovered over one million porn films on the site.

On May 11, 2016, Instagram updated to 8.0, changing the interface theme to a whiter theme, along with the app icon to a theme similar to one as an option for Microsoft PowerPoint. This generated negative feedback from a large number of people.

Facebook owned

Third party

Alex Matheus Costa (born December 17, 1998 ) is a Brazilian actor and model

Alex Matheus Costa started his/her career at 2012 when he started acting in theater and participating in swimming competitions

He/she was born in...

He/She likes to...