Behind Facebook's takeover of Instagram: a three-party gaming of social networking sites

In the FACEBOOK10 billion acquisition of Instagram news to the shock of the people can feel, but who knows in the deal behind the transaction involved Facebook, Twitter and the Instagram of the tripartite game.

And, according to close Twitter sources, Twitter had already had contact with Instagram before Facebook, and after hearing about it, Mark Zuckerberg took the time to play it by himself, In a short period of three days and Instagram boss Systrom completed the negotiations, and the final premium twice times the preemptive completion of the acquisition of Instagram.

Earlier, the industry had long been rumoured to have a great interest in Instagram, and before being bought by Facebook, Instagram was making $500 million worth of $50 million trillion in financing, and received Twitter formally to Instagram proposed a value of hundreds of millions of of the acquisition, and they want to buy Instagram to enrich their own profit model.

There were two roads before Systrom, either continuing to finance or simply being bought by Twitter. But he has increased confidence in the value of Instagram by Twitter's takeover intentions, and has opted for a third way, an early end to financing, an ambiguous approach to Twitter, no list of investment terms with Twitter, and no terms of contact. , and contacted Mark Zuckerberg and told the latter.

So, everything behind it happened, Facebook halfway to kill, successful cut Hu, Instagram fish, the value doubled, only Twitter this time in the competition with Facebook nearly completely defeated, leaving only a lonely dim figure.

Facebook may have many, many reasons to buy Instagram, but perhaps the biggest reason is simply to not want Instagram to be bought by Twitter, just to hit Twitter.

Facebook has been worried about being overtaken by the latter, and the rout of MySpace is not only a proud and ostentatious achievement, but also a sword that hangs on their heads. In Mark Zuckerberg's view, the social network does not exist long-term hegemony, if the successor is good enough, no matter how brilliant the predecessor, will be ignored by the user, abandoned, and eventually become a footnote to others success. For Facebook today, Twitter is the biggest and most likely successor, and they will do everything they can to destroy any chance that Twitter could grow.

Perhaps it all stems from the paranoid nature of Mark Zuckerberg, as Microsoft has always done, like Apple's aversion and hostility to Android, as Google, which claims to "do no Evil," is now doing. In Silicon Valley, perhaps, as Andy Grove says, only paranoia can survive (only the paranoid offspring).