Founding Background

Imgur was born out of personal frustration for Alan Schaaf. He felt it was too difficult and annoying to quickly share a photo with friends. At the time, all the products were for taking photos and storing them. But he thought images were different. So, in 2009, Alan Schaaf, a junior at Ohio University, founded Imgur in his dorm room.

Basic Introduction

Imgur is a free image sharing website founded in 2009. It provides a simple and direct online image sharing service with editing functions, with formats such as jpeg, gif, png, bmp, etc. After users successfully upload images, they can link to blogs, forums or other websites through sharing codes.

About 30 percent of the site’s audience, mostly young people and geeks, now consume content directly from the Imgur homepage and mobile apps.

Image Captions

JPEG, PNG, GIF, APNG, TIFF, BMP, PDF, XCF (GIMP) and other image formats. TIFF, BMP, PDF and XCF (GIMP) will be automatically converted to PNG for upload.

The image size limit is 10 MB (non-animated images). When the image exceeds 1 MB, it will be forcibly compressed to 1 MB for optimal browsing quality. The maximum size of dynamic image files is 2 MB (such as GIF and PNG).

Imgur has no image traffic limit. Whether you link to imgur to browse images or browse directly, there is unlimited traffic. When no one views an image within 6 months, it will be automatically removed from the imgur system.

Income Sources

Imgur currently makes its main revenue from traditional advertising on its image pages, but Schaaf claims that the company will eventually shift its main revenue source from advertising on traditional ad networks to selling its own independent ad products. In addition to advertising and Imgur's independent ad products, Imgur will also make some of its revenue from paid accounts, which can upload higher-quality images and store more content.

Hacker Attacks

Imgur, a world-renowned photo-sharing website, recently admitted that it was hacked in 2014 and 1.7 million account information including email addresses and passwords was stolen. Imgur said that since the website does not require users to submit their real names, addresses or mobile phone numbers, the stolen information does not contain private information.

develop

In 2011, Imgur won the "Best Bootstrapped Startup" at the TechCrunch "Crunchies" awards.

In 2013, Imgur and Yahoo signed a contract to provide image services for Yahoo Fantasy Sports.

In 2013, Imgur had 100 million monthly active users.

Imgur launched the "meme maker" service in 2013. Let's take a look at how Imgur, the American meme production base, broke through the refined walls of social media and became a clear stream that allows netizens to let go of themselves.

In March 2014, Imgur received $40 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz.

In 2015, Imgur had 150 million monthly active users.

In 2015, Imgur won the Webby Awards for Best Social Media and Best Community Website.

In 2017, Imgur had 250 million monthly active users.

In 2017, Imgur launched a chat feature that lets users receive notifications on their phones and share text, links, memes and GIFs.

Starting in October 2019, Imgur will no longer display NSFW Imgur r/subsections related to Reddit subsections.

References

• 1. Imgur development history: imgur official website [reference date 2018-03-05T16:00:00.000Z]
• 2. Photo sharing website Imgur: How to turn 150 million users into a fortune? : NetEase Technology [cited on 2015-03-29T16:00:00.000Z]
• 3. Imgur: American Sand Sculpture Emoticon Pack Production Base: Tencent.com [cited on 2019-01-04T16:00:00.000Z]
• 4. Fighting against the beautiful world Instagram: Imgur’s way of holding on to the meme social network: Huxiu.com [cited on 2018-12-31T16:00:00.000Z]
• 5. Imgur admits that 1.7 million accounts were hacked in 2014: Webmaster Home [cited on 2017-11-18T16:00:00.000Z]
• 6. Imgur, a photo social networking site, has over 100 million visitors per month: Sohu Technology [cited on 2013-09-26T16:00:00.000Z]