How many of you remember DailyBooth?

Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore were still married and they were big fans of the platform. The whole idea behind the site was simple – post a picture of yourself each day.

Put simply, DailyBooth was a photo blogging website. A way of documenting and sharing your life with your friends. Does this sound familiar?

If it sounds familiar, it is because the core idea is not much different from Instagram. But, at a strategic level, the two are quite different.

The Idea Behind Instagram

Instagram is a photo sharing site. That’s about it.

Instagram keeps things simple. Communication through imagery. Nothing more, nothing less.

The overall strategy is in the name. It is a combination of the words “instant” and “telegram”. And, it was popular from the beginning. It had a 100,000 users in its first week and a million within 2 months. The app itself was built within 8 weeks. It was a hit from the beginning.

If you still have not caught up, it is because it is that simple.

There is no commitment. No aim. You just share pictures. You simply tell your story through imagery on Instagram.

On the other hand, the DailyBooth is a bit different.

The Rise & Fall of DailyBooth

DailyBooth started off well too.

DailyBooth was launched in Feb 2009 by Jon Wheatley. By Aug 2009, the website had 3 million users and was growing at a rate of 35% a month. But, even with support from YCombinator, the idea had a problem.

The whole idea of sharing a picture each day was geared towards teens. This level of restriction demographically, combined with a strict concept of photo blogging, simply did not hold attention long enough. It was exciting in the beginning but did not transform into anything bigger.

In the end, Airbnb, in a acqui-hire deal, took over the talent at DailyBooth and integrated their abilities in its own business. With the death of the interest in DailyBooth, there was no value seen in maintaining, or even running the platform. And, it was closed down permanently in Dec 2012.

Like we have said earlier, simpler ideas go far