[bbaker]

Instagram, and other social networks, are fundamentally different than wordpress sites in a number of important ways. 100 million users didn't join because it was an alternative to a blog.

Their funding didn't dry up. They raised a substantial round, and then were purchased by another company that had itself just raised billions of dollars. They didn't need money.

But they did want to make it. Because they're a business.

[Tyrannosaurs]

I'm not sure what your point is here.

Raising money or being bought doesn't give them the revenue streams they need to turn themselves into a real business with a sustainable future. They could have carried on burning through capital sure, but that could only go on for so long and ultimately some sort of direction change was inevitable, whether it was asking users to pay, selling advertising or whatever.

[001sky]

They didn't need money...

-- Huh?

They don't need money. The need to return money to investors.

Big difference.

Here, they are having a garage sale (of other people's stuff) to pay the mortgage on the house they luxuriously live in. Of course, they bought the supplies and furnishings for their house with money from investors. That's why they are trying to steal what is in the garage ans sell it on ebay to marketers/ =D

[geori]

"They raised a substantial round, and then were purchased by another company that had itself just raised billions of dollars. They didn't need money."

How dare those investors demand a return on their investment!!