1. The document discusses how Instagram was sold to Facebook for $1 billion after starting as a small team with a simple photo sharing app idea. 2. It provides examples of other simple app ideas like Draw Something and Angry Birds that also found great commercial success. 3. The success of these apps has inspired many new businesses to develop app ideas of their own in hopes of achieving similar financial success and popularity.

1. Once Upon an App 2012 Mobile App Success Stories
One day a small team of humble and innovative personalities, tucked away in an office in San Francisco,
and the next day, a billion dollars richer. The creative and innovative minds responsible for the rave that
is Instagram sold their “pride and joy” to Facebook this past week for a flattering $1billion. So what does
this mean exactly? How does it influence future businesses that place their success upon a Mobile or
Web Application?
It means the world! With the success that Instagram has shown the App world, it has opened the door,
and may prove to inspire the interests of other businesses or start-ups to consider building the
foundation of their business upon an application.
Once only accessible with iPhone, Instagram now has a huge influx of Android users. Such a simple
concept and idea has become a huge hit just two years after its initial release.
1. An Instagram Image: One of the More Lively Desks at Our Headquarters in NH.
2. An Instagram Image: The River View From Our Hudson, NH Office.
Most of the most memorable success stories stem from simple ideas turned into big bucks. The Post-It is
a prime example of such a simple solution to a problem that was considered inconvenient. Instagram
created an application that allowed its users to take beautifully captivating photos, edit them and share
across their social networks. How simple, how convenient and most of all how fun
A few other application-based businesses that paved the way:
Draw Something:
This social game allows two players to take turns drawing a picture that their

2. opponent has to guess the word that the drawing represents. This simple game concept that has been
played for generations through Pictionary is now available as a mobile app with Draw Something. It was
purchased by Farmville developers Zynga for $180 million in March of 2012.
Angry Birds: There is no hiding the fact that this mobile app from developers Rovio
Entertainment has captured our childish hearts. With 700 million downloads as of
this March, one might wonder how many mobile phones are there, and is anyone
getting work done?
Words with Friends:
Another social game developed and published by Zynga. With over 1.6 million active
users on a daily basis, this Scrabble-like game has grown tremendously, and has
provided Zynga with incredible success. And much like Draw Something and Angry
Birds, Words with Friends has opened a barn door of opportunity for future
application-based businesses.
With the direction the digital world is taking in accordance to applications and the solutions they
present to consumers, it is only logical to imagine if you are looking to start a business, or are looking to
restructure your business direction, an application ultimately could produce incredible success for you
and your brand.
There is a certain type of intimacy that is presented between a business and their consumer through an
application. With how active people are in their mobile usage, and involvement on social networks,
consumers feel the need to share, like, tweet, blog and pin their interests as though the whole world
were their forum, and it was their time to speak atop a soapbox.
What Instagram did was take advantage of this urgency for expression with an app. With a simple
snapshot of a photo and sharing across social networks, Instagram took us all by storm. And Facebook
founder Zuckerberg had to have his hands on this consumer trend.
There has been an incredible growth of interest by venture capitalists toward mobile app development.
Convenience and sharing is everything in today’s digital age. Developing an app for your company or
brand that caters to these two components ultimately could find your business on a similar path of
success to that of Instagram’s. Setting realistic goals based around an app could get you there.
Whether it be an idea for a social game app or an idea for an application that could be the next big
simple solution (the Post-It of applications), we at Zco Corporation can help turn any idea into an app.
Request a call to speak with one of our mobile experts about how we can help.
Article Source: http://blog.zco.com/2012-mobile-app-success-stories/