Instagram Is Estimated To Be Worth More Than $100 Billion (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Facebook's Instagram is estimated to be worth more than $100 billion, if it were a stand-alone company, marking a 100-fold return for the app purchased in 2012, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence. The photo-sharing platform, which reached 1 billion monthly active users earlier this month, will likely help nudge Instagram revenue past $10 billion over the next 12 months, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jitendra Waral wrote in a report Monday. Instagram is attracting new users faster than Facebook's main site and is on track to exceed 2 billion users within the next five years, Waral said. While the social network already has surpassed that milestone, Instagram's audience is younger than its parent, making it more attractive to advertisers. And unlike Facebook, Instagram is still growing in the U.S.

Comments

A better way to look at valuation

[Dzimas]

If Boeing went out of business tomorrow, there would be a global aircraft shortage. If Instagram unplugged its servers, the world would continue unaffected.

Re:A better way to look at valuation

[eepok]

Instagram is how young people communicate, Facebook is how us older people communicate. Killing Instagram today, could mean today's kids when they get into the market and want to communicate with business contacts will probably be split up across many competing services.

Let's not over-inflate Instagram or Facebook as general "communication". It's how people chat about less-important things. Yes, some conversations have significant value, but neither platform is built to facilitate thoughtful conversation and thus it doesn't happen to the extent people like to think it does.

If Facebook and Instagram were to die, people would find another place to chat. Communication would continue on, unabated, via email, phone, forums, in-person conversation, and the like.