As I’ve been reading about the announcement that Instagram will start showing ads to support it’s platform one common thread keeps appearing. People complaining about it. Saying that they have succumbed to the devil, that they will now stop using Instagram forever, and that they are angry that the site dare try to monetize.
Well Mr. & Mrs. angry pants how they hell do you think it’s going to stay in business? You don’t pay for the app, yet to keep it running requires a large amount of people and resources. So in-lieu of charging you a monthly fee how do you expect them to stay in business?
Do you think the engineers who make updates and keep the system running work for free?
Do you think the community managers who create a fun experience and curate the amazing content Instagrammers are creating work for free?
Do you think the hosting companies who supply the bandwidth for the Instagram servers are just giving it to them for free?
Without money Instagram disappears. Without money everything you love about the service goes away.
If you have a realistic alternative I would love to hear it, but otherwise just accept the inevitable and hope they do great things with their advertising. Personally I don’t mind it at all and I’m just hoping they keep their word and don’t allow brands to just upload their print ad, push it out, and call it a day. I hope that they force brands to get creative and do interesting things that will keep you from even noticing that they’re advertising to you.
After all, millions of us are interacting with branded content on it anyways so what’s the big deal if Instagram asks brands to pay for it now?
