In fifteen years, Instagram has been in rain and good weather on social networks for fifteen years. With almost two billion users worldwide, during the last count, it has become a vector of trends and influences, even if Tiktok has greatly competed for two years.
In France, this still represents more than 26 million users.
An application to democratize the photo
Imagined in 2010 by two entrepreneurs, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, the project is the first to offer an application to share their photos. Well helped by the success of the iPhone, which even offers integration within iOS, Apple’s mobile operating system, Instagram will be seduced far beyond the photographer’s sphere and will convince a young generation who has the desire to share their life, their vacations and even more.
The acquisition of the social network in 2010 by Facebook (now from Meta), however, will promote it considerably. Goal Boss, Mark Zuckerberg, believes that Instagram would not have known the success we know today without the surprising power of Facebook.
By offering the platform that convinced young people, goal spends almost one billion dollars. Without it being easy to establish its exact assessment today, it is worth much more today. In 2024, Instagram generated an estimated turnover of 67 billion dollars, or almost 41% of the total goal income …
Meta control on Instagram
At that time, the acquisition will flow a lot of ink. Mark Zuckerberg’s same confession, it was to “withdraw a potential competitor from the market, while taking advantage of a new user base valued at 300 million at that time.
But goal tries some modifications in the conditions of use, authorizing the commercial exploitation of users’ photos. A change that does not happen, creates a boycott effect and pushes the business to return.
This period was delicate, the number of fewer users is estimated at four million, but now it is forgotten. Because others change and the growing integration of the goal universe applications, in particular the exchange of stories on Facebook or the presence of threads, but also access to all user data and a “common” account, pass as a letter to the post office.
It should be said that between time, Instagram has become impossible to avoid for those who wish to share their lives on the Internet, and even more since the influencers have established themselves there.
Whether Hollywood stars, the personalities of the reality shows, but also all succeed, Instagram has become, after YouTube, the best way to “unravel” in the media sphere.
There are many derivations there, especially with hidden ads, and that are subject to convictions in France, as in other places, but the platform is a point of entry governed by a powerful algorithm.
An algorithm that is debated
Because, since 2016, the flow has not been presented chronologically and the announcement has arrived. In fact, users first only see what they appreciate most, or what Instagram wants to boost. The stories, released calmly, opt for the same system.
The algorithm, precisely, has raised serious questions for many years. Instagram is far from being the model son of social networks that his two founders wanted to offer.
Over the years, we realize their failures, which can sometimes push young people to an impossible evil to resolve. From the application that is supposed to represent the real life of the time, in fact there is much. Instagram is only one of the evil ambassadors of our time, social networks, but it turns out to be the most striking because it adds images (or videos).
The culture of “false”, which consists in inventing a dream life to add more and more commitment, resonates particularly on the platform, even more in the era of influencers and AI. And that is without counting on the very submerged part of the iceberg with cases of “toilet” and child pornography thanks for a vision of privacy and disputed, and a questionable exchange.
The landslides continued in the 2020s, among the widely transmitted conspiracies or the transmission, through an algorithm error, very violent videos and photos, goal no longer seems to control the monster it created.
Despite the fines, such as 405 million euros in 2022, 180 million euros in 2023, the machine continues to shoot. To this is added the very personal vision of his boss, Mark Zuckerberg, in moderation. The billionaire, who is now looking towards the extreme American right, leaves the few rules that ruled Instagram and offers an important place for politically sensitive content and modifications.
Instagram and its many failures
But it is not just moderation or algorithm that moves in the Instagram galaxy. In fifteen years, the application has certainly been copied, but above all it received complementary goal requests, and a large number.
Faced with a popularity among young people, Instagram will begin competitors from other applications with significant growth. Boomerang in 2015 is looking to create short videos with a dozen photos, but was arrested the following year. The same year, Layout wanted to highlight the collages of its users with an editing application: their functions will be integrated into the main application, due to the lack of success, as of 2016.
Hyperlapse, on the other hand, comes to highlight the thylapsos (these videos that show a place captured for several hours, but accelerated). Released in June 2018, IGTV will offer the exchange of longer videos than those that may be available on Instagram. But, again, your useful life will only be two years.
Finally, recently, Instagram has stopped offering third -party applications, integrating its new functions directly into the main application. A much less risky bet, which also allows the attention of the dear user for technological giants.
Instagram’s ability to respond to social media market trends increases ten times. The stories come to provide an answer to the insolent success of Tiktok, the AI allows all the follies, the filters generated by the users and the “lives” make their entrance. There is an insta delivery for everything, even if that means becoming a real gas factory. An flagship application that can bring a lot of money to a handful of its users, but especially to the goal.
Source: BFM TV
