Christina Warren, Mashable:
To be clear, I could not be happier for the Instagram team. They earned their success. The service is worth every penny. I’m genuinely glad that the team will get to reap the benefits of its hard work.
And buying Instagram was a great business decision from Facebook’s perspective. As I remarked on Twitter, why try to build a competing photo app when you can just buy the best and most viral?
Still, as a user, I can’t help but wonder: how long before Instagram becomes just another Facebook app? How much time until everything that made the service so special disappears into the ether?
As an early adopter, I’ve watched far too many of my favorite apps and services suffer. They have shut down or evolved into something completely different after being acquired by a bigger company.