Snapshot of my Instagram Profile (All photos ©whereisksenia)

Last week, the buzz was all about Facebook acquiring Instagram – the world’s most successful (30 million users) mobile photo sharing app. To be honest, ever since I gave into the idea of owning an iPhone a few months ago, I’ve been quite addicted to this photo sharing app. I’ve always liked snapping quick pictures with my phone camera. To me, that’s a way to document little happy moments that can be easily forgotten otherwise. Instagram’s filters help to make the pictures more artsy, and then get social by sharing them with friends. It also lets me discover new people to follow by interests – hash tags work great for that. My current top 3 Instagramers whose pictures always put a smile on my face are @veganfoodshare, @da0da and @kinax.

Me on my roof, filtered with Instagram (Zara leather jacket, Zara skirt, Pour la Victoire leather handbag, Tommy Hilfiger booties)

But who would have thought that a picture can be worth $1 billion?..

Mark Zuckerberg stressed Facebook’s interest in working closely with Instagram team to expand from sharing photos with your friends and family to sharing mobile photos with people based on your interests. But is that really Facebook’s main interest? I highly doubt it.

The main difference between the two social networks is that: While Instagram is still a user-generated platform (with brands catching up very slowly and unintrusively), Facebook has a significant amount of brand-generated content with its Sponsored Stories, Ads and other ways to monetize the social networking giant. When the news about the acquisition broke, a lot of Instagramers revolted, unhappy with the idea that Facebook might turn Instagram into something that it’s not. But why does that have to be bad? I am not very keen on this idea either, but if you think about it… What happened to YouTube after it was acquired by Google? It flourished! Not that Instagram needs any help growing, but now that the deed is done, why not try to think of all the possible good outcomes of this acquisition? For example, now there’s a high chance that the Instagram plugin on Facebook will work correctly… finally.

A picture I snapped from the top of the Bank of America Tower last week, filtered with Instagram

Anyway, the rest of the story is up to Mr. Zuckerberg, all I have to say is that I hope that Instagram’s authenticity will be preserved. Meaning, please don’t attempt to turn “Your Photos” into a “Timeline”. That could lead to a new record of mass deactivation of a mobile app. And one more thing, which I completely agree with Mashable’s Christina Warren on: Keep it mobile only!

What are some of your favorite instagram users? I’d love to check them out!

p.s. If you’re not an owner of Instagram-compatible iPhone or Android, you can check out what the app is all about on Statigram. It’s also a great way to see your stats if you’re an existing Instagram user.

Instagram is a free download for ‘fast beautiful photo sharing’ per the company’s website.  The quotes from the Instagram site noted, “It’s a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your photos with friends and family.  Snap a picture, choose a filter to transform its look and feel, then post to Instagram. Share to Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr too – it’s as easy as pie. It’s photo sharing, reinvented.”

Instagram’s blog noted, “When Mike and I started Instagram nearly two years ago, we set out to change and improve the way the world communicates and shares. We’ve had an amazing time watching Instagram grow into a vibrant community of people from all around the globe. Today, we couldn’t be happier to announce that Instagram has agreed to be acquired by Facebook.”   Facebook has previously tried to acquire this company and Instagram recently closed on some new venture funding.

The news has Shutterfly, Inc. (NASDAQ: SFLY) down over 7% at $27.31 so far today against a 52-week trading range of $21.34 to $66.70.

Paying $1 billion for a photo sharing service may be a hard sell for Wall Street analysts seeking to identify how to value companies in the social media space.  We’ll leave this one up to you. When you have a market value of $80 to $100 billion in a pre-IPO goal, maybe overpaying is somehow good.

JON C. OGG