The gram or insta, as it is popularly known today, was launched on October 6, 2010, by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. The photo and video-sharing platform quickly took the social media world by storm over the next few years, touching one billion active users in 2018! One of the most influential social media platforms, Instagram was bought by Facebook in 2012.
Systrom was working in marketing and started doing engineering at night to help him learn how to code. He created a prototype app of an idea he originally called Burbn, which allowed people to check-in where they are on their mobile web app. After meeting people who worked for venture capitalist firms at a party, Systrom got them to agree to a meeting to discuss Burbn. After the first meeting, he quit his job and two weeks later he had raised $500,000 from the firms.
At this point, Systrom decided to find a team to help him and Mike Krieger agreed to join. They decided that the app was very similar to other already established mobile apps, so they pivoted to focus solely on communication through images. They stripped out all the features from the app except uploading photos, commenting and liking. It was renamed Instagram which referred to the fact that users were sending a type of instant telegram.
Picture Credit : Google
