Facebook Must Learn from Google

I normally don’t like to write about these hot topics right when they happen.  But this one is just too tempting.  Facebook spending $1 Billion to purchase Instagram, a company with no ad revenue.  This is obviously great for the Instagram team.  It can also be a great investment for Facebook as well.  First, I don’t know where Facebook came up with the $1  Billion mark, but if that’s what they feel it is worth, than so be it.

This was clearly a move by Facebook to buy out the competition.  You can take a picture with your iPhone (and now Android) and post it directly to Facebook, but the picture may be boring and not vintage.  Or, you can take a picture with Instagram and make it look vintage, or like a Polaroid image to be nostalgic and then post it to Facebook for all your friends to see.  But wait, if you want to see your friends entire Instagram photo album, you had to leave Facebook and no longer be bound to the rules of Facebook.  This is why Facebook spent the money they did.  Who knows what the costs would have been for Facebook to create an image taking service like Instagram, then market it, then roll it out.

Just like with everything that Facebook has done, or whenever they make changes, people are going to complain.  And they have the right to.  Facebook could potentially take an awesome app and service like Instagram and screw it up.  Plenty of companies have done this before.  There’s one example that stands out as one of the biggest success stories and that is Google and YouTube.

Facebook should learn from what Google did and make sure that they handle this process the right way.  The way Instagram works now is obviously working pretty well.  Screwing with the team and processes could be very damaging.  I hate having to log into Facebook to use an app when I don’t want to.  I have Facebook friends, but I also have Twitter friends.  The Instagram photos that I currently share on Twitter, I do not always want to share on Facebook, so please do not make me do that.  I think that this is where most people are going to get turned off by this purchase.

Well, this deal is still young, so we can only see where Facebook will take it.  Let’s hope they do the right thing!