Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Instagram Is Estimated to Be Worth More Than $100B

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 394 posts

Re: Instagram Is Estimated to Be Worth More Than $100B

#191

Post by quadrangle »

jmartrican wrote: post #157
vowelless wrote: post #134

I am quite privacy conscious. I have deleted my FB account. On principle, I dislike targeted ads, user tracking, etc. BUT, I hate to admit this, the ads I get in Instagram are the most relevant I have ever gotten. I actually look forward to them, to discover new products. They are perfectly tailored to me. Dammit.

I'll be honest, I like ads that are relevant to the things I am interested in. I am no FB fan boy, but their ads are pretty good... I actually click on them. What's wrong with that?

You're feeding the adtech privacy-invading world which has tons of negatives for society. As an analogy: "I shop at Walmart and find products I actually appreciate. What's wrong with that?" The answer isn't simple, and shaming individual consumers isn't a solution anyway.

Among the biggest problems with ads are that when they are the primary economic model for these services, they will tweak everything to favor paid ads as much as they can get away with. That means everything from conflicts-of-interest around serving the needs of the biggest advertisers to undermining organic (non-paid-ads) discovery of products and services…

Re: Instagram Is Estimated to Be Worth More Than $100B

#192

Post by protonimitate »

jmartrican wrote: post #157
vowelless wrote: post #134

I am quite privacy conscious. I have deleted my FB account. On principle, I dislike targeted ads, user tracking, etc. BUT, I hate to admit this, the ads I get in Instagram are the most relevant I have ever gotten. I actually look forward to them, to discover new products. They are perfectly tailored to me. Dammit.

I'll be honest, I like ads that are relevant to the things I am interested in. I am no FB fan boy, but their ads are pretty good... I actually click on them. What's wrong with that?

Nothing. It's a win-win. Consumers get personalized, tailored ads. Businesses reach audiences that actually want their products.

What annoys me are ads for products I've already purchased (amazon is terrible about this), or the same ad plastered 20 times across multiple sites.

Instagram handles ads pretty well IMO. They are non-intrusive, easy to digest, and highly relevant.

Facebook OTOH, has become one giant scrolling, auto-playing, clickbait/video ad. There is essentially 90% junk to 10% information (posts/photos/etc). IG has the same ratio but in reverse.

People love to bemoan the horrors of internet advertising, but tbh I find it way less intrusive than other forms of ad placements (TV, radio, billboards).

Except autoplay vids w/ audio. Those should be banned flat out.

Re: Instagram Is Estimated to Be Worth More Than $100B

#193

Post by [deleted] »

thanatropism wrote: post #175
admn2 wrote: post #48

I've long had a theory (maybe it's not that revolutionary) that part of Instagram's success is it allowed people a free pass to be vain and show off-y. On Facebook, it was a bit stigmatized to post a picture of an expensive purchase, amazing house interior, fancy vacation, or workout picture of your physique. However, it's the entire point of Instagram. Couple that in with all the brands and other accounts of inspira…

Two people on my Facebook who went to Russia for the World Cup are basically posting photos from every game. I figure the games they haven't selfied are the ones they didn't buy tickets for.

[deleted]

Re: Instagram Is Estimated to Be Worth More Than $100B

#194

Post by J5892 »

coldtea wrote: post #170
onetimemanytime wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Advertising is a very legitimate way of making money, lots of it. Now tracking people all over the web and other shady things, are a different story.

> Advertising is a very legitimate way of making money Yes, just not a way to make something that improves our lives. Or even if you manage to make something that improves our lives, advertising is an incentive to pervert it and hold it back (e.g. you create a social network so people from all over the world can meet, then ads make you cripple it, force feed BS to them, milk them with spam, exploit their private data…

How would you monetize it without ads?

Instagram would have died an early death if you had to pay for it, and hiding certain features behind a pay wall would alienate 90% of the users.

Re: Instagram Is Estimated to Be Worth More Than $100B

#195

Post by mayankkaizen »

vthallam wrote: post #21

No wonder. Anecdotal of course, but I see my friends spending more time on instagram and people on the train or bus browsing instagram. I don't remember seeing FB on someone's mobile in the last 6 months. It will only grow bigger and at some point when it becomes too big, you see less friends posts and more advts and people move on to something else. But for next 2 years, Instagram's going to be Yuuuge.(Huge)

At least in India and for me, it is exactly opposite. I never saw Instagram open on anybody's mobile. It is always facebook and whatsapp. Sometimes Twitter but never Instagram.

Re: Instagram Is Estimated to Be Worth More Than $100B

#196

Post by theandrewbailey »

csomar wrote: post #60

I remember the outrage when Zuckerberg bought Insta for $1bn. The Internet was filled with bubble-theorist. Say what you want about Zuckerberg but the guy was well ahead of his time and could see how things would evolve and what tick with people brains.

That's when I started using the word "instagram" as shorthand for "billion dollars". A while ago, Facebook bought Oculus for two instagrams. (It kind of makes sense: one for each eye in their VR headsets.)

Re: Instagram Is Estimated to Be Worth More Than $100B

#197

Post by cm2012 »

vowelless wrote: post #134

I am quite privacy conscious. I have deleted my FB account. On principle, I dislike targeted ads, user tracking, etc. BUT, I hate to admit this, the ads I get in Instagram are the most relevant I have ever gotten. I actually look forward to them, to discover new products. They are perfectly tailored to me. Dammit.

It's because of the amazing data Facebook and Instagram have to create anonymous targeting audiences with. Source: I spend millions on FB and IG ads per month.

Re: Instagram Is Estimated to Be Worth More Than $100B

#198

Post by EpicEng »

murukesh_s wrote: post #111
EpicEng wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You "feel sorry" for two people in their mid-twenties who made anywhere from $100M to $400M selling their 15 month old company (while making the other 11 employees rich along the way.) Ok. Beyond that, why do you assume the valuation would be exactly the same had they not sold to FB?

yea, nothing to feel sorry about. What could anyone do with a few millions (or billions more) if they are already rich by half a million.. unless you are trying to climb the Forbes leaderboard.

>if they are already rich by half a million.. unless you are trying to climb the Forbes leaderboard.

That would be half a _billion_ and, generally, I don't "feel bad" for people who don't attain their dream of climbing the Forbes leader board (assuming that is even a goal for these two.)

Re: Instagram Is Estimated to Be Worth More Than $100B

#199

Post by gadders »

beauzero wrote: post #71

I enjoy IG because I have narrower friends and family there. ...and Orvis. Love flyfishing and honestly I couldn't consume the content there or see amazing fishing or be "up" on their stuff by watching tv or browsing. It's condensed. I tried following some skiing stuff but just get spammed by people trying to hawk stupid ski sayings on tshirts. Mostly recycled junk. I now almost have more followers by people hawking…

There must be a bot or something that people use where if they choose to follow you it will then like EXACTLY two posts at random.

Yeah, good luck with that. I'm still not following back.

Re: Instagram Is Estimated to Be Worth More Than $100B

#200

Post by cbolton »

sharkweek wrote: post #152

I'm a 30something curmudgeon, but I have become addicted to their "explore" page or whatever it is. Their algorithms have masterfully created an infinite scroll of addictive content that generally applies to my tastes. I caught myself a few months ago scrolling through that page for almost 30 minutes before realizing what I had been doing. I now have to be very intentional about not going down that constantly-refresh…

Could you further explain a bit the appeal? I have never used Instagram and I imagine it as scrolling through dozens of pictures of cool stuff people do... Is that it?

Do you have "feeds" with pictures that correspond to a specific interest of yours? (Is Instagram actually the best place to find interesting pictures on a range of topics?)

Do you post a lot yourself or is it virtually all "consumption"?

Would you say the identity of the posters plays a significant role (friends, celebrities... ?) or is it really more about the content?

Sorry for the barrage of questions, feel free to ignore any or all of them!

Post reply on HN