Instagram, the photo sharing site, turned five years on Tuesday. The site, which started out as a location check-in site, was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. The name, Instagram, was coined from ‘instant camera’ and ‘telegram’ and was launched in October 2010 as a free mobile application. It was acquired in April 2012 by Facebook for one billion dollars in cash and stock. Citigroup estimates Instagram to worth $35 billion.
The social media platform has approximately 400 million monthly active users, 40 billion photos, 3.5 billion likes daily and 80 million pictures uploaded daily. The social media platform, which is used by its subscribers to document their lives in pictures, boosts of a huge followership. Taylor Swift remains the most followed celebrity with 49 million followers, 10% of the total subscribers on the social media platform while retired football star, David Beckham, who joined to celebrate his 40th birthday, remains the fastest subscriber to reach one million followers, a feat he achieved in just one day.
