Facebook, Instagram, Ben Bernanke: Thank You For the New Tech Bubble

pigrabbitbear writes "Those who continue to inflate the tech bubble will be quick to remind us all of how they've learned from the past. That this time, it's simply different. They do have a point. Silicon Valley (and Alley) have matured. Startups these days are focused, driven, and efficient, creating products that people actually use. In a period of less than a year after its launch, Instagram was used by 5 million users, who by August of 2011 had uploaded 150 million photos. But even with these impressive results, it's impossible to ignore the fact that many of the fundamental economic factors that led the first bubble remain." A couple other readers contributed similar articles — Instagram's sale seems to have solidified the idea for many that we're in the midst of another tech bubble, though some are more certain about it than others.

Comments

Simple Explanation for Instagram

[FsG]

For anyone who's still scratching their head about the instagram purchase, here's something to think about.

At least one of Instagram's employees, Philip McAllister, was at Gowalla when it was picked up by Facebook less than 6 months ago.

That guy might be the luckiest bastard in the world, having worked for 2 tiny companies whose only significant accomplishment was getting acquired by Facebook. On the other hand, Zuckerberg could just be funneling company money to friends?

How many of the 5 million users are spambots?

[tokengeekgrrl]

I'm always perplexed why the quality of the number of users is never challenged.

How do you know a ton weren't generated as apart of some marketing strategy?

Or rather, how can you NOT suspect that a significant portion of them aren't fake?

Has the issue of verifying online registration as belonging to an actual, unique person been solved with absolute certainty while I wasn't paying attention?

- tgg

Crucial difference from Bubbles Past...

[dryriver]

The last few Tech Bubbles popped when the U.S./World Economy was doing alright. And even then they did tremendous damage. If this one pops, it will pop in the middle of an already quite severe Global Economic Crisis. And that won't help make things better. As for Facebook & Twitter... I'll eat my hat if by 2015 either one is worth 1/5th of what it is currenly valued at. Both are places where lots of people with time to ki hang out because they are Free & Social & Trendy. If the World Economy manages to get back on its feet in the next 3 years, I doubt that so many people will hang out at these free "Social Hangouts". Facebook is seriously boring. Twitter is a mere novelty that may go out of fashion, globally, within a span of a mere few weeks. I wonder what will replace FB&Twitter 3 years down the road. As for "Instagram", only a terrifically stupid person (like the Zuck?) would pay 1 Billon for a company whose greatest achievement is throwing a few nice looking photo filters togethers and letting users post images online. 1 Billion Dollars invested differently would buy - litterally - thousands of unique, custom-developed Photo Filters. Its Bubble-Time, all right, judging by what is happening. And its going to burst eventually. My bet is on mid-to-late 2013, or maybe early 2014. It all depends on how the Zeitgeist changes in the next 12 - 18 months.