"We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook," founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg while announcing the proposed acquisition.

Instagram, which was launched in October 2010, recently that its community has grown to over 80 million registered users who have shared nearly 4 billion photos.

Facebook said that it expected the deal to close this year. It said that after the acquisition, it planned to maintain Instagram's products as independent mobile applications to enhance its photos product offerings and "to enable users to increase their levels of mobile engagement and photo sharing."

The IDG News Service