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| “This is not going to be one of the best tech acquisitions of the next decade.” (comment) | ||
| recommended by 3 users | 2012 | georgespencer on: Facebook acquires Instagram | aged poorly | acquisitions | original thread | | ||
| georgespencer on Apr 9, 2012 | on: Facebook acquires Instagram | view on HN | ||
| 3 users recommended this comment. What they said: |
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throwaway427 Jun 26, 2018 | on: Instagram Is Estimated to Be Worth More Than $100B | context | aged poorly
I don't really care for hilighting peoples past skepticism but this guy literally asked for it: --- [...] This is not going to be one of the best tech acquisitions of the next decade. YouTube helped to propel Google into content. It also helped to commoditise web video in a massive way: reminiscent of the way which Google commoditised search (YouTube is probably just short of being a byword for online video at this point). Instagram is a photo service in a sea of other photo services. Photography has been around on the web in meaningful ways for a long time. Flickr lost out to Facebook in the community stakes, and Instagram is doing great in whatever-the-fuck market it's in (the share-to-my-twitter-followers market?), but this is not Google acquiring YouTube. Bookmark this comment. See you in 2022. --- |
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larrykubin Jan 1, 2022 | on: Ask HN: Favorite/Classic HN threads of all time | context | aged well
I was going to post this standalone, but will post it here. I was recently reading the Hacker News initial reaction to Facebook acquiring Instagram in 2012: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3817840 One of the commenters says it will be the equivalent to Google buying YouTube. To which another commenter replies "bookmark this comment, see you in 2022". And here we are: |
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interestica Jul 25, 2023 | on: Ask HN: What is the best thing you learnt or got out of… | context | aged poorly
There was a comment 10 years ago about Facebook's acquisition of Instagram comparing it to Google/Youtube which was especially notable because it asked readers to "check back in 2022". (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3818055) > This is not going to be one of the best tech acquisitions of the next decade. > Instagram is a photo service in a sea of other photo services. The interesting thing to me was their comment wasn't 'wrong' per se, but just that their logic was founded on that false assessment ("photo service"). In fact, their assessment of the value/success in YouTube's acquisition could have been applied to Instagram (in that it let Facebook access a different type of image-based social sharing). |
> This is very reminiscent of Google/YouTube circa 2006.
In that it was a startup acquired by a big company? Yep.
> When Google bought YT it was a small team of people and a pretty nascent product that people really loved, and the usage numbers were out of control.
Like most startup acquisitions, the team size is relatively small and there is significant traction in the market with headroom to mature their footprint.
> They left the product mostly untouched and let it grow on its own. Though there was major criticism at the time, it is one of the best tech acquisitions of the past decade.
This is not going to be one of the best tech acquisitions of the next decade. YouTube helped to propel Google into content. It also helped to commoditise web video in a massive way: reminiscent of the way which Google commoditised search (YouTube is probably just short of being a byword for online video at this point).
Instagram is a photo service in a sea of other photo services. Photography has been around on the web in meaningful ways for a long time. Flickr lost out to Facebook in the community stakes, and Instagram is doing great in whatever-the-fuck market it's in (the share-to-my-twitter-followers market?), but this is not Google acquiring YouTube.
Bookmark this comment. See you in 2022.