A good read, for sure. As someone outside of the US, it makes me wonder if Instagram's succes would have been possible if it was a non-US company, or even a startup outside of California?
Direct answer: no. Indirect answer: no. The probability is low because guys outside of bay area don't build app to dent anything. They don't aim to build an app that is cool: to them, their friends, their investors, their users, and ultimately their suitors and acquirer. They build it to mint money, which is why this story inspires them too.
It also counts that you are in a habitat where having beers with Zuck or being one of the first employees of google or twitter( or just name one..) is easy. If you need a 500000$ seed investment? No problem, I will talk to Andressen and it'll be done in a week..
Of course it's not always like this but SV is the place where this may happen.
The biggest difference I notice with other places beyond the easier access to investment (I am from Spain), is that people there has a "can do" attitude that is almost completely missing everywhere else. If you go to Stanford, it is expected from you to go and make something big just because of that. Also there is the glorification of failure as a learning experience.
Here in Spain I am seeing lots of good Ideas to start a small bussines or a Start up for almost no money, but even in the middle of the crisis, people who doesn't have a job gives me a blank stare every time I talk about them. They'll just keep looking for a simple job at a big company, as it that is the only possible way.
The think that most impacts me of this article is how they get 25000 users the first day. How do you do that?. Is due to having a huge net of early adopters as friends?
Edit: twitter spelling!(tweeter...)