Facebook Acquires Instagram For $1 Billion: A Techie Cinderella Story Timeline

Earlier today, Mark Zuckerberg took to his Facebook page to make a big announcement: as of today, Facebook has acquired Instagram for $1 billion.

It's been a long road for Instagram, the San Francisco-based photo sharing app that first launched in October, 2010, and now that it's under Mark Zuckerberg, Ruler of the Internet's wing, Instagram has the funding and the backing they need to grow faster than ever before.

What this acquisition means for Instagram isn't yet clear. Will Instagram photos now be subject to the same privacy terms as our other Facebook photos? Will Facebook essentially own all of our photos and other content we post to the site? Right now Instagram lacks the stalker-type features that make many people uneasy about Facebook, but there's no word on yet on how many of Facebook's features will be integrated into the app. All we do know is that for now, the Instagram app will maintain the same look that we're used to. But with the way Zuckerberg likes to change things around, there's no saying how long this will last.

[Instagram co-founders Mike Kreiger and Kevin Systrom, photo via]

Let's take a look back at Instagram's success, starting back in 2010 when it all began:

October 6, 2010: Instagram appears in Apple's app store for the first time. At the time, the mobile app had only two employees: co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.

February 2, 2011: Instagram is up to 2 million users, who are uploading 290,000 photos each day. The company also receives $7 million of funding, which Systrom says they will use to hire more employees and expand Instagram to other platforms. [NYT]

August 3, 2011: After just nine months, Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom announces that 150 million photos have been uploaded through Instagram. The app has approximately 7 million users, who upload 1.3 photos a day. The company has only 4 employees. [FastCompany]

December 9, 2011: Apple names Instagram App of the Year. [WashingtonPost]

January 6, 2012: Instagram's website is receiving 10 million page views each day, and 300 million page views per month. [GigaOm]

February 21, 2012: A testament to Instagram's popularity and expected growth, UPenn student Alice Lee created an incredible resume, which she sent to Instagram in hopes of getting a job there. Check out her awesome resume HERE, which took 2.5 days, many skipped classes, a few bowls of Ramen to complete.

[Instagram office in 2011, photo via]

March 9, 2012: The Wall Street Journal writes that Instagram is valued at $500 million. [WSJ]

March 21, 2012: Hipstamatic users can now upload photos to Instagram. [FastCompany]

April 3, 2012: Instagram launches for Andriod, making Andriod the first platform other than iOS to be supported by Instagram. In the first 24 hours, one million Android users download the app. [Gizmodo] [Time]

April 5, 2012: Business Insider names Instagram one of "10 Startups To Bet Your Career On." As of last week, Instagram had 30 million users and 9 employees. [BusinessInsider]

[Photo via]

Today, April 9, 2012: Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion. Mark Zuckerberg is excited, and promises to "be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram's strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook." Kevin Systrom echoes the same sentiments on Instagram's blog, writing, "It’s important to be clear that Instagram is not going away. We’ll be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network. We’ll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience." Since the announcement, friends and foes of both Facebook and Instagram have taken to Twitter to voice their opinions on the acquisition. [NYT]

We're not sure what this means for the future of Instagram, but we're hoping that Facebook can help our favorite app expand even more without changing any of the features we love!

[Mike Krieger, Kevin Systrom, Photo via]