Kevin Systrom. "Instagram"

Instagram – is a free photo-sharing program. By this program, users can take a picture and share it with other users who are also connected on this social network.

Instagram gives low quality camera phone pictures, retro feel. One tap on the touchscreen and an average sunset changes into a tropical postcard, an old bicycle gets a sting of nostalgia.

“In the 14 months since its launch, Instagram has become one of the most widely used social media platforms in the world, with around 15 million users. The photo-sharing app – currently available only on Apple devices -- allows users to instantly add special effects to their images. "We worked really hard on making it really easy for people to share their lives in a beautiful way. It’s one thing to share a photo. It’s another for that photo to be gorgeous."

Founder of this successful and famous program is Kevin Systrom.

Systrom loved technology before entering the university. He has been always interested in business start-ups and in his free time he created Web Sites such as Stanford analog huge board, the second Web Site he created for some student members organization where they could display their photos from the last party.

In the third year Kevin went to Florence to study photography. There he worked on the application along with a young engineer Jack Dorsey( actual founder of twitter).

 Systrom worked in the “Google” company, and also in a company called “Nextstop”.

Soon he realized that he wanted to make a web site that would put together his passion for photography with social games. He talked about this conception call Burbn with Steve Anderson, who offered him $250,000 to run the company.

IPhone was the new technology of the 21century.  The founders have worked together for only two weeks. The prototype is an application for Iphone with features to communicate and comment. The results were not so impressive for both of them. Soon they had other filters such as Hefe and Toaster. Partners renamed their product to Instagram. Before Instagram changes the world there’s work to be done—an Android-based version launched four months ago—and Systrom admits it’s currently too hard to discover new users, see what’s happening around you, trade comments and look at your photos from the past. He’s also set on creating a website version of Instagram (several clones already exist). And Instagram must also continue to expand its user base to the tune of a few hundred million before it can truly become the eyes of the world.

Then there’s the whole revenue thing. Independent or not, Facebook will one day call on Instagram to bring in dollars. Systrom isn’t worrying about that for now. “I think the visual format works well with advertisers. If you follow Burberry or Banana Republic you see their Instagram posts are really ads, but they’re also beautiful,” Systrom says. “Right now we’re focusing on growth. It’s not about squeezing a buck out of an advertiser.”

Systrom, who still lives in the same one-bedroom apartment, relishes a relatively shoestring life. On another night I head with the Instagram gang to the old Army bowling alley in the Presidio to celebrate an employee’s birthday. Four Instagramers and I squeeze into Systrom’s black 2002 BMW he bought used when he worked at Google. The car’s GPS is broken, and the $400 million man almost mistakenly steers us across the Golden Gate Bridge. “I think not focusing on money makes you sane,” he says, “because in the long run it can probably drive you crazy.”