Echoing the other comments here -- there isn't really any insight to be gained. Especially from a founder of instagram this is really surprising. I would have thought they would understood more deeply what's going on.
Here's my arm-chair analysis:
Producing content is hard. Writing, thinking, etc takes time, energy, and creativity. Typing on a small smartphone keyboard only makes this even more painful. Snapping a photo is easy and revolves around a moment -- something easier to recognize when it's worthy of sharing.
If you take twitter's original premise of 'what are you doing now' where the parody response would be 'im now sitting on the toilet', it's just not particularly interesting to read. When a turned into a photo it suddenly gains "994 words", and then you add on easy ways to enhance it with photo filters and now it turns into something far more special (even if its still just your feet on the ground). It's also remarkably easier to swipe through photos and grok what's worthy than it is to read a bunch of text. Now add that you can follow people who are visually inclined and suddenly you have a rich medium at your fingertips that's just as easy for people to participate in as well as passively observe.
All of these combine to having a unique experience that lead to explosive growth. Add a public-default and now you don't even need to have any friends in the app to still find it enjoyable, and even better if it let's you peer into the lives of celebs (if you're into that). First mover advantage certainly helped as well, as did having a walled off garden to contain the content.
That's why I think instagram worked. Now where's my FB check??! ;)
"Producing content is hard. Writing, thinking, etc takes time, energy, and creativity. Typing on a small smartphone keyboard only makes this even more painful. Snapping a photo is easy and revolves around a moment -- something easier to recognize when it's worthy of sharing."
Here's my arm-chair analysis:
Producing content is hard. Writing, thinking, etc takes time, energy, and creativity. Typing on a small smartphone keyboard only makes this even more painful. Snapping a photo is easy and revolves around a moment -- something easier to recognize when it's worthy of sharing.
If you take twitter's original premise of 'what are you doing now' where the parody response would be 'im now sitting on the toilet', it's just not particularly interesting to read. When a turned into a photo it suddenly gains "994 words", and then you add on easy ways to enhance it with photo filters and now it turns into something far more special (even if its still just your feet on the ground). It's also remarkably easier to swipe through photos and grok what's worthy than it is to read a bunch of text. Now add that you can follow people who are visually inclined and suddenly you have a rich medium at your fingertips that's just as easy for people to participate in as well as passively observe.
All of these combine to having a unique experience that lead to explosive growth. Add a public-default and now you don't even need to have any friends in the app to still find it enjoyable, and even better if it let's you peer into the lives of celebs (if you're into that). First mover advantage certainly helped as well, as did having a walled off garden to contain the content.
That's why I think instagram worked. Now where's my FB check??! ;)