---
title: "Which came first, Instagram or Netflix?"
description: "Instagram vs Netflix: Netflix came first, by 13 years — 1997 against 2010. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/instagram-vs-netflix/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Instagram or Netflix?

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

1997 — 13 years before Instagram

Netflix came first, by 13 years. Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph founded a DVD rental-by-post company.

## Side by side

|  | Instagram | Netflix |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 2010 | 1997 |
| Date | 2010-10-06 | 1997-08-29 |
| Category | technology | technology |
| What happened | The app launched on iOS. | Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph founded a DVD rental-by-post company. |

## 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.

## Netflix

Netflix was founded in August 1997, a year before Google, and posted DVDs for a decade before streaming launched in January 2007. The famous origin story — Hastings founding it after a $40 late fee on Apollo 13 — has been called a useful myth by co-founder Marc Randolph. Blockbuster declined to buy the company for $50 million in 2000.

## Common questions

### Which came first, Instagram or Netflix?

Netflix, by 13 years — 1997 against 2010.

### When did Instagram start?

2010. The app launched on iOS.

### When did Netflix start?

1997. Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph founded a DVD rental-by-post company.

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## Sources

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