Population of India ~1.3 billion 🤳
Instagram users ~ 2 billion 🤖
Instagram > India if it were a country 🤯

Now go back to 10 year, 2012
Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion 🤑 🤑

Fast forward 10 years, 2022
Instagram is now valued at $100 billion 😱 😱

How it started?
A photo sharing platform.

How it’s going?
Making $26/yr per user with ads. So what’s working for them? & what can we learn?

Top 5 things that made Instagram a $100 billion dollar company 👉 👉

🎯 The insight(s)

First, they imbibe “a picture is a thousand words” in everything they do. Second, no language barrier to consume content makes it a borderless product. Third, signalling is the core to everything an IG users shares with their inner circle (social capital for the world!)

🎯 The pillar to virality

Instagram was the only second platform (after YouTube) which understood creators & not brands are the content engine. It pushed creators from day 1 & has always prioritise creator tools (editing, publishing, templatizing). This brought in incremental creator audience in turn scaling active user numbers.

🎯 The consistent ‘AHA’ moments

Photo-sharing apps have always been there in the last decade. Most of them died as users came for the FOMO but never stayed on the platform. Instagram always had hooks that would get users to come back to the app daily.

The trigger in every IG app session made sure it builds the habit for an average users. IG created belongingness in its users. It’s crazy how the feed recommendation managed it for a billion users.

🎯 Making money with ads

Instagram learned from Facebook three important things.

• Who & when to show a particular ad?

• How to show the ad?

• What’s the ad quality bar?

This created the right incentives as Instagram incentivises ads which makes users click & buy rather than just click. By solving for the win-win for consumers & advertisers it made sense to scale ads without hampering user experience.

🎯 Repeat risky bets

Instagram still behaves as if it is fighting for survival when it comes to product innovation. Be it copying reels from TikTok or launching creator funds or focusing on creator tools it just outbids the competition on speed of execution.

They love risky bets to the point that we won’t be surprised if they make few blunders down the line & still stand stronger on their market share.

That’s all for now!

Think about what changes you would make in your own product if you had to think & act like Instagram.

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