Instagram surpasses 80 million users

Instagram has been on a roll lately. After shedding the iOS exclusivity by releasing an Android app, it was soon acquired by the social networking giant Facebook for a whooping $1 billion. The photo sharing and filtering service has now announced that it has surpassed the 80 million download mark through its iPhone and Android apps. This is a remarkable feat for a company that is merely two years old. Instagram has also revealed that the number of photos shared is now 4 billion. When Kevin Systrom, creator of Instagram announced the availability of Instagram for Android at SXSW in March this year, he had stated that the app had over 30 million users. Reportedly, Systrom said that the combination of Android and networking means that Instagram are able to grow faster now more than ever. The photo editing and sharing application was reported to hit 10 million downloads in its first 22 days of existence on the Android platform. Instagram for Android has obviously had a fair deal of success, the certainty of which could be seen right when the application for Android launched.

Instagram crosses 80 million users

Instagram also announced an update for Android users. The latest update brought two main features: one, support for the newly launched Nexus 7 tablet by Google; two, the ability to upload photos directly to Flickr, the popular online image hosting site owned by Yahoo!. Instagram on Android has seen immense success. It has emerged as one of the most anticipated applications to grace Android devices till date. Instagram has come a long way since its launch as an iOS-only, photo sharing and editing app. While for many users Instagram is about sharing their experiences through photos, for others, it's about making art through their phones.

Soon after Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook and Kevin Systrom, Founder and CEO of Instagram, wrote in blog posts about their deal. Zuckerberg said that for years, Facebook has focused on the use of photos to connect friends and families and now they'll be able to enhance that experience with "beautiful" mobile photos. Facebook has no plans to shut down Instagram as the company has done with previous startups they have acquired. On the other hand, Kevin Systrom revealed in his blog post that with a company like Facebook, ideas will be shared to improve the services of both Instagram and Facebook. He emphasized that Instagram will not go away. "It’s important to be clear that Instagram is not going away. We’ll be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network. We’ll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience", he added.