Instagram, Is Taking Off

Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger are living the startup dream. Their simple iPhone photo shooting-and-sharing app is growing about as fast as we’ve seen anything grow: Less than a month after launching, it’s already approaching 500,000 users.

It has been Apple’s featured iPhone “app of the week” in iTunes, which has accelerated its growth. And the people who use it seem to love it: Our Twitter stream is full of Instagram shots — especially from tech-yuppie-types.

The craze for analog-looking digital photography has continued to grow. The Instagram app is the latest installment, offering LOMO-esque effects on those less than SLR quality smartphone photos, but brings with it a new added bonus: social networking.

Instagram is often called ego-driven and addictive. Ordinarily, those terms are negative, but when you’re talking about social apps, a little catering to natural self-interest can go a long way toward getting your work noticed and adopted.
Clearly, Instagram has nailed this aspect; its social and popularity mechanisms make the app almost impossible to forget.
Earlier this week, Systrom spoke about the app’s rapid rise through the App Store charts, telling us, “I think we’re reigniting passion for casual photography…

Instagram has taken on a life of its own — it’s definitely no longer our product anymore. It belongs to the community.”
We can’t wait for Instagram to launch on more platforms, and we look forward to hearing more success stories from this young company.

source: Business Insider