Twitter Responds to Facebook's Buyout of Instagram

Facebook Inc

has never been particularly threatened by Twitter's presence. The return of Jack Dorsey in addition to bringing on board Dick Costolo as CEO and Adam Bain as Head of Revenue, which was interpreted as Twitter getting ‘serious', didn't change Facebook's position. As the mobile platforms gained popularity, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg went ahead to purchase Instagram - in a deal which was originally valued at $1 billion but closed at $715 - amidst reports that Jack Dorsey had been in acquisition talks with Instagram founder, Kevin Systrom. Twitter, has now announced ambitious plans to unveil its photo product “in months to come” to compete with Facebook's Instagram which they reveal will use filters. Twitter employees who spoke to press on condition of anonymity stated that the filters will appeal greatly to the VIPs on twitter popularly referred to as VITs (Very Important Tweeters), such as media personalities, celebrities among other people who command a large following. Unconfirmed reports indicate that works are in the pipeline at the Twitter offices to have users directly uploading video content while bypassing third party services such as Google Inc

's YouTube. As Twitter continues to develop tools to assert its presence in the social media realm and move past the micro blogging utility tag, Systrom downplayed its efforts while at a Tech conference on Monday saying, "Instagram is a community, not a filters app." Systrom and Dorsey had once been very close as the former worked as an intern for the latter. While specifics about the photo-sharing tool remain unclear, it is obvious that the app will go beyond filters. Twitter die hards might see this as a comeback to Facebook Director, Peter Thiel's remarks who once said that if you threw a bomb into Twitter headquarters at 6 p.m., no one would get injured because everyone would have already gone home for the day. Critics state that twitter might have an edge and come out victors in its burgeoning war with Facebook with its significantly higher subscriber base which by September 2012 was at 140 million compared to Facebook's 100 million. Implementation of the project will greatly determine its uptake in the competitive iOS and Android market. Photo-sharing apps such as Yahoo! Inc

's Flickr have been around for a while now, but remain forgotten.