Short answers, pulled from the story.
Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Brazilian software engineer Mike Krieger and launched for iOS on the 6th of October 2010. It grew out of a failed check-in app called Burbn, which the founders pivoted to focus on photo-sharing. The name combines "instant camera" and "telegram."
Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion in cash and stock, as announced on the 9th of April 2012. When the deal officially closed on the 6th of September 2012, the final terms were $300 million in cash and 23 million shares of Facebook stock. According to Wired, founder Kevin Systrom personally netted $400 million from the transaction.
Instagram reached 1 million registered users within two months of its October 2010 launch, 10 million within a year, and 1 billion by June 2018. Monthly active users of Instagram Reels reached 1.8 billion as of 2024, and Reels averages 150 billion views a day as of November 2024.
Internal Meta research leaked to The Wall Street Journal in 2021 found that Instagram negatively affected the body image of one in three teenagers. Among teen girls, 70% experienced negative social comparison, and 13% of British teen users with suicidal thoughts could trace those thoughts to Instagram use. The studies were qualitative and not designed to establish causation.
Instagram Reels is a short-form vertical video feature that launched globally in August 2020 and focuses on videos under 90 seconds. It functions similarly to TikTok, allowing users to create short videos set to existing sounds. Despite Meta spending heavily to court creators, user engagement in Reels continued to lag behind TikTok as of 2022, though Reels reached 150 billion daily views by November 2024.
Instagram permanently removed the ability to search recent hashtags in April 2023. The platform cited the change as an effort to prevent abuse and stated that hashtags do not help posts gain views. Critics noted that using hashtags was the only free method for users to reach beyond their existing followers.