---
title: "Which came first, Google or Instagram?"
description: "Google vs Instagram: Google came first, by 12 years — 1998 against 2010. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/google-vs-instagram/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Google or Instagram?

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

1998 — 12 years before Instagram

Google came first, by 12 years. Google Inc. was incorporated in a garage in Menlo Park.

## Side by side

|  | Google | Instagram |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1998 | 2010 |
| Date | 1998-09-04 | 2010-10-06 |
| Category | technology | technology |
| What happened | Google Inc. was incorporated in a garage in Menlo Park. | The app launched on iOS. |

## Google

The date used here is the incorporation, 4 September 1998. Two others compete: the research project called BackRub began at Stanford in 1996, and the google.com domain was registered on 15 September 1997. Google itself has celebrated its birthday on four different September dates over the years, which is a fair indication that no single one is correct. It is younger than Amazon, eBay and Netflix.

## 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, Google or Instagram?

Google, by 12 years — 1998 against 2010.

### When did Google start?

1998. Google Inc. was incorporated in a garage in Menlo Park.

### When did Instagram start?

2010. The app launched on iOS.

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## Sources

- Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place (/about/)
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]