---
title: "Which came first, Amazon or Instagram?"
description: "Amazon vs Instagram: Amazon came first, by 16 years — 1994 against 2010. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/amazon-vs-instagram/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Amazon or Instagram?

**Which came first, Amazon or Instagram?: Amazon**

1994 — 16 years before Instagram

Amazon came first, by 16 years. Jeff Bezos incorporated the company in Washington state.

## Side by side

|  | Amazon | Instagram |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1994 | 2010 |
| Date | 1994-07-05 | 2010-10-06 |
| Category | technology | technology |
| What happened | Jeff Bezos incorporated the company in Washington state. | The app launched on iOS. |

## Amazon

Amazon was incorporated on 5 July 1994, originally as Cadabra, and the website opened in July 1995 selling only books. The 1994 incorporation date is used here because it is the company's own founding date; if you mean the shop, 1995 is the answer. Either way it predates Google by three or four years and eBay by about a year.

## Instagram

Instagram launched in October 2010 as an iPhone-only app and took 25,000 users on its first day. Facebook bought it in April 2012 for about $1 billion when it had thirteen employees and no revenue. It is four years younger than Twitter and six years older than TikTok.

## Common questions

### Which came first, Amazon or Instagram?

Amazon, by 16 years — 1994 against 2010.

### When did Amazon start?

1994. Jeff Bezos incorporated the company in Washington state.

### When did Instagram start?

2010. The app launched on iOS.

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- [Amazon or JavaScript?](https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/amazon-vs-javascript/)

## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]