Instagram Is Now Worth $100B, Facebook’s Best Investment Yet

While Facebook might be the dominant social media platform right now, it’s increasingly becoming apparent that the future belongs to social networks like Instagram. Younger generations of users are making this clear enough by using the bigger service less than before. It’s fortunate, therefore, that Facebook owns Instagram. This is especially the case now that the photo-sharing platform is worth $100 billion.

With its current value, Instagram is now worth a sixth of the total value of Facebook, The Motley Fool reports. It’s basically one of the most valuable tech companies in the world in its own right. The fact that it is under the umbrella of Facebook is just detail.

The past year has been particularly good for Instagram, propelling its growth considerably. Much of this is due to the appealing features that the service keeps on adding. Users don’t seem to mind that Instagram stole Stories from Snapchat as long as it is applied effectively. So far, this seems to be the case.

At its current value, it also represents a 100-fold return for Facebook since Instagram was purchased for $1 billion back in 2012. In fact, when considering that the closing amount was at $715 million due to stock fluctuations, the final ROI is 140 times the acquisition amount.

This is why Quartz notes that buying Instagram might have been the smartest decision that Facebook had ever made. With Facebook's declining appeal to younger users, the photo and video-sharing platform might be its best hope of actually staying relevant in the years to come.

This is also bound to be helpful in realizing the dreams of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who has long desired a world connected via the internet under the umbrella of his social network. With Instagram, at least his company won’t be phased out as quickly as it would have been. Cases like that of Friendster can attest to the devastating results of what the loss of youths' interest can effect.