Pros and Cons of Facebook Acquiring Instagram

Now that Facebook has acquired the popular photo app-based mobile network Instagram for the price tag of $1 billion dollar, it’s time to look at how this merger will affect both services. As with any major business move like this, we can expect pros and cons and elements that will likely remain a mystery for some time. As the most important social media company of all time, one that will soon be traded publicly, Facebook has made its mark on virtually forms of business and commerce, from custom promotional product services like Inkhead to nonprofits looking to rally their grassroots communities. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of one of Facebook’s most important acquisitions:

Pros:

Facebook will become an even more powerful medium for photographers and artists who wish to share their work. Up until this time, Facebook has been a common medium for all people looking to promote their work and gather followers. Facebook acquiring Instagram means it will likely be heavily investing in new photo app and storage features that will likely attract many new photographers and artists and give them new opportunities to network.

Instagram will have the capital to develop tons of new features. Instagram itself will now be flush with cash and will have the financial ability to significantly develop their brand. Not only will existing features become more web-friendly, new features will likely become powerful cross-platform applications.

Cons:

They risk alienating a niche consumer base. Facebook/Instagram will soon be tampering with an extremely organic and clique-ish community that may dislike an infusion of hundreds of thousands of users. This larger user base will dramatically speed up the movement of the image feed, which could lead to unrest as more quality images get buried under a pile of others.

It’s unclear whether or how Facebook will store the old Instagram photos. Your previous ability to keep some photos private may now be jeopardized by Facebook data mining. For die-hard Instagram loyalists who liked knowing exactly where their photos were being kept, the new Facebook world could be unsettling.

Coin flip:

Facebook will become more powerful in the social mobile arena. Whether or not this will water down their service or make it even more functional remains to be seen. Some think Facebook is becoming messy, and may be following the path of Myspace.

Facebook will be flooded with exponentially more Instagram photos. This one of course depends on whether or not you like the Instagram aesthetic. If you do, this new flood will likely be a welcome development. If you do not like Instagram and in fact think it is the hipster equivalent of Low-Fi art automation, you could find your once beloved Facebook News Feed buried in unwieldy Instagram images.

Financially speaking, the Facebook/Instagram acquisition will certainly behoove both companies in the short run. Whether or not the merger affects brand loyalty or quality of service in the long run remains to be seen. For now, it’s exciting to keep an eye on the salient details of this very interesting social media honeymoon.