why facebook bought instagram?

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Facebook recently purchased Instagram for a billion dollars, leading many to question what Zuckerberg's intent is. The jury's still out, but the speculation alone informs us something about in internet is headed within the years to come. What does doing this mean, and how will it customize the way we market ourselves online? Here are a few thoughts.
Is This About Data?
Instagram is a mobile photo sharing app that's available for free, hence the immediate real question is how it's going to be monetized. One of the first responses through the online community was that this purchase was all abou data. Many people are already beginning question how this will likely affect their privacy.
Will Instagram be using the mobile location data, tags, and images for data mining? Will they sell this information to their advertisers, or use it to give advertisers better targeting capabilities?
There's no way to know definitely, but all this speculation points to your very important way social media is fundamentally changing our lives. Data about customers is becoming increasingly easy to come across. By the same token, your own data is alsobetter to access.
Even whether or not this isn't, as openness becomes normal, consumers start to question why you are keeping everything quiet inside first place.
There are two takeaway points for marketers.
1. The consumer data information mill growing - If you aren't monitoring what your customers, and potential customers, are doing, you could end up falling behind. Your competitors will increasingly use this data to optimize their platforms, improve their marketing efforts, and improve their products. Consumers will start to expect a more personalized experience. At the same time, privacy is a   concern, and excessive data mining could creep out customers.
2. Companies will become more transparent - Users will be far more comfortable with the fact that companies are mining their data if those companies are public about everything they are doing. Companies that insist on collecting information without giving any away will start being seen as tyrants in the old world. Transparency is the way to grab attention and be nonthreatening in the years to come.
The Visual Web is Here
Humans are visual creatures, so it shouldn't be too surprising that the web is growing more visual everyday. Ignoring Instagram, the popularity of Flickr, Tumblr, and Pinterest should make it clear just how important visual elements are becoming. The fact that Facebook was willing to shell out $1 billion to invest in the future of the visual web is further proof of this.
Virtual Reality Was Wrong
In the 1980s, most futurists believed the internet was going to bring us into an age of virtual reality. Instead, what we are seeing is a merging in the virtual and the real. We use the internet here to see what exactly is happening inside real world, and we turn to our mobile phones in order to enhance our down to earth experiences.
If Instagram's popularity teaches us anything, it's which a strong presence inside real world certainly dramatically improve upon a strong presence in the virtual world. If people love sharing photos with one another, businesses must be thinking about ways to get techniques for finding themselves into those photos. These lessons can be carried to other platforms like Foursquare and Twitter, and to your lesser extent every other social network.
Is Facebook Afraid?
With so many questioning why Facebook purchased Instagram, some are starting to wonder whether or not this was a move made purely out of fear. Did they are buying it specifically because they thought it was getting too big? Did believe that it might turned into a competitor if they ever worked out how to monetize it? Will Facebook's strategy be to buy every potential competitor before it's too late?
This gives marketers yet another thing to think about. Considering how quickly previous social networks like MySpace and Friendster evaporated, it's a mistake to consentrate that anything is stable. Any company that is certainly focusing entirely on the number of "likes," tweets, and shares should be concerned with that. All of those numbers could disappear overnight.
If, on the other hand, you've built a genuinely engaged audience and a strong brand, this mustn't be cause for concern.
That's our take on things. Why do you think that Facebook bought Instagram, and what does it mean?

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