Facebook and Instagram, two of the most popular websites in 2012, have recently merged into one. As of April 2012, multi-billion dollar corporate giant Facebook.com bought the picture sharing website Instagram for a whopping price tag of one billion dollars.

The infamous Mark Zuckerberg posted the announcement on his Facebook Timeline. “For years, we’ve focused on building the best experience for sharing photos with your friends and family. Now, we’ll be able to work even more closely with the Instagram team to also offer the best experiences for sharing beautiful mobile photos with people based on your interests.”

Facebook has an estimated 850 million users. However, with Instagram’s 30 million users, a huge influx is expected for Facebook, especially since Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom says he thinks Instagram should easily reach 100 million users.

Of course, with any huge public mergers come both negative and positive criticisms. Many say that Facebook buying Instagram means that new and unnecessary changes will be made to Instagram. Others think that the merger is great news and that there will be innovative and helpful updates.  Whichever way the wind blows, it shall be interesting for the development of both companies.