The Origin Of Instagram: Starting With The Check-in Site

Illustration (Freestocks / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The Instagram social media application is like the default application for every smartphone. Because more than one billion inhabitants of Earth have installed this application on their cellphones. And it turns out, the origin of Instagram stems from the on-site check-in site.

It all started when marketing expert Kevin Systrom dabbled in a side project at night to learn programming. At that time he made a prototype for an application called Burbn, the concept was simple: creating a platform so that people could show off the location where they were.

Systrom then ventured to present the Burbn concept to investors at a party. Financiers agree. Without thinking he immediately resigned from his old job and focused on developing his project after pocketing 500,000 US dollars from the company.

Then the first problem came. It turns out that users don't always check-in when visiting the Burbn site. They actually prefer to share photos of small moments. Starting from a photo of a cup of coffee, pet dogs, and food.

When Systrom saw new opportunities, Mike Krieger, a programmer who became the co-founder of Instagram, joined him. His abilities are very complementary to Systrom.

Kevin Systrom, founder of Instagram (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Watch out for opportunities

Launching Tech Crunch, Tuesday, October 6, Systrom and Krieger saw how users in the beta version of Burbn were interested in sharing photos and then studied every popular application that had a photo category. They remove Burbn and start over from scratch.

The photo category seemed overwhelming, but Systrom saw a gap that many others didn't see. It's great fun taking photos and being able to pack them up with filters. After seeing the idea of social interaction by sharing photos, that's exactly where Instagram comes in.

It took several months to make a prototype and experiment. There was a predecessor before Instagram called Scotch, but it was unfiltered, slow and buggy. However, the concept of sharing photos continues to attract the attention of Systrom and Krieger.

They are trying to perfect the appearance (UI) and convenience (UX) of using Instagram so that people only need a few steps to upload their photos. And that certainly looks more attractive.

A photo can be uploaded in just three clicks. Reflecting on Twitter, they make Instagram posts accessible to the public.

Instagram features (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

After being tested for months, finally Instagram was officially launched today, October 6 a decade ago or in 2010. The enthusiasm of the public is crazy. In a day there are 25,000 people registering their accounts.

At that time Instagram employees had to work from morning to morning again. The users continued to boom. In just two months they managed to invite one million users.

His success with Krieger and Systrom became an impromptu celebrity. They met many important people such as the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama to British Prime Minister David Cameron. Their faces are plastered on the covers of international magazines.

Step back

In 2018, Systrom and Krieger decided to leave their positions as CEO and Chief Technology Officer of Instagram. Their reasons for resigning are to explore curiosity and creativity.

"Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match it with what the world needs; that's what we will do," said Systrom, quoted from CNN.

He added that the two of them remain excited for the future of Instagram in the years to come. At that time Instagram had joined Facebook. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg described Systrom and Krieger as "extraordinary product leaders."

"I can't wait to see what they build next," he said in a statement.

However, other reports revealed that Systrom and Krieger's resignation was due to tremendous tension with Zuckerberg over his briefing on Instagram. Spokesmen for Facebook and Instagram declined to comment further on why the executives decided to step down.