[webmaven]

> A competitor could duplicate everything Instagram does, but the competitor wouldn't be as valuable as Instagram.

You left out IP other than source code, specifically all the User Generated Content they have.

[sowbug]

Doesn't matter. The competitor could have a (legal) real-time mirror of all the UGC, but no users would interact with it -- they'd give their likes and comments to the real Instagram. Nobody would visit the competitor's app to post new UGC, either -- people post on Instagram for the likes and comments.

The value is in the network, not the IP.