The hot-and-still-newish photo social network agrees to become part of the Big Daddy of social networks. Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom:

Every day that passes, we see more experiences being shared through Instagram in ways that we never thought possible. It’s because of our dedicated and talented team that we’ve gotten this far, and with the support and cross-pollination of ideas and talent at a place like Facebook, we hope to create an even more exciting future for Instagram and Facebook alike.

It’s important to be clear that Instagram is not going away. We’l be working with Facebook to evolve Instagram and build the network. We’ll continue to add new features to the product and find new ways to create a better mobile photos experience.

Here’s the Facebook side of the the announcement.

Maybe there was a bit of foreshadowing in this interview Systrom did with Sarah Lacy a couple weeks ago:

27 million people is not too shabby, but it’s nowhere near the scale you need to make a massively large business.

They’ve got scale now.

[Instagram shocked chicken by Edo Kleinman/CC.]