---
title: "Which came first, Instagram or Python?"
description: "Instagram vs Python: Python came first, by 19 years — 1991 against 2010. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/instagram-vs-python/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Instagram or Python?

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

1991 — 19 years before Instagram

Python came first, by 19 years. Guido van Rossum released version 0.9.0 publicly.

## Side by side

|  | Instagram | Python |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 2010 | 1991 |
| Date | 2010-10-06 | 1991-02-20 |
| Category | technology | technology |
| What happened | The app launched on iOS. | Guido van Rossum released version 0.9.0 publicly. |

## 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.

## Python

Python was started as a hobby project over Christmas 1989 and first released publicly in February 1991 — four years before Java, JavaScript, PHP and Ruby, all of which arrived in 1995. Most people assume it is much newer because its popularity arrived twenty years after it did. It is named after Monty Python, not the snake.

## Common questions

### Which came first, Instagram or Python?

Python, by 19 years — 1991 against 2010.

### When did Instagram start?

2010. The app launched on iOS.

### When did Python start?

1991. Guido van Rossum released version 0.9.0 publicly.

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## Sources

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