10 years of Instagram: from place for square photos to multimedia machine

Instagram continued to grow rapidly under the wings of Facebook. And that brought changes. For example, advertisements came into the app, and the timeline now works via an algorithm, which previously went in chronological order.

It led to successes for users, who, thanks to their large numbers of followers, were able to make money through the app and grow into influencers. And it led to viral content, like the egg.

Just like Facebook, Instagram was soon confronted with the dark side of the internet. Think of online bullying, hate speech and misinformation. As with Facebook, the size of Instagram makes it impossible to keep out all harmful content. And it is a battle that never ends for the app.

Stories, an unprecedented success

The most important change that Instagram has seen so far is indirectly due to their competitors. Silicon Valley law states that you are successful until a new player enters the market. The first time Instagram was confronted with this, that ‘danger’ came in the form of Snapchat, with the stories feature: Stories. The principle is that you share photos and videos here that disappear after 24 hours.

The fear was that teenagers would switch to that new, hip app. To counter that launched the app, Instagram Stories. Fears struck again this year when it emerged that TikTok was pulling users away from Instagram. In response, the company came up with ‘Reels’. True Instagram Stories a success turned out to be, Reels has yet to prove himself.

In a blog Instagram itself also pays attention to its ten-year anniversary. Instagram promises in that big changes. Reels, but also the shopping function, will have their own tab in Instagram. This has changed the app from a photo sharing service into a multimedia machine with countless options.

A new boss

The latest changes are no longer decided by founders Systrom and Krieger. They stopped two years ago. They would be given less creative space and increasingly clash with CEO Zuckerberg. The decisions are now being made by Adam Mosseri, a confidant of Zuckerberg who previously headed Facebook’s News Feed. The NOS talked to him about it before in april 2018.

–