Friday, March 09, 2012

Instagram has 9 employees and a valuation around $500M

Instagram, the popular photo sharing app for iPhone, is about to raise $40 million, which should give a valuation of $500 million to the firm. That's for a company that at last count had only 9 employees and hasn't really started trying to make money yet. Instagram has seen spectacular growth, getting more than 15 million users in less than two years, and was adding them at a pace of a million every couple of weeks toward the end of last year.

Founder Kevin Systrom told BI that he hasn't decided exactly how Instagram will make money, but he's confident that there's an opportunity.

"The question is, is there an opportunity beyond group buying, search advertising, to make a whole lot of revenue on the iPhone, on Android. I believe the answer is yes, that's what we're going after".

Instagram has never spent a dime on marketing. It appears that Facebook has tried to buy Instagram with no success so far.

For more information and an interview with the founder see:
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/this-27-year-old-built-one-of-the-fastest-growing-apps-ever-without-spending-a-dime-on-marketing-2011-11#ixzz1oe9eq8EX

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-has-only-a-handful-of-employees-but-may-soon-be-valued-at-500-million-2012-3?utm_source=Triggermail&utm_medium=email&utm_term=10%20Things%20In%20Tech%20You%20Need%20To%20Know&utm_campaign=Post%20Blast%20%28sai%29%3A%2010%20Things%20You%20Need%20To%20Know%20This%20Morning#ixzz1oe8mPQww

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