Vkontakte to launch photo-sharing service through App Store

Russia’s leading social network VKontakte is on the verge of releasing a mobile application along the lines of the Instagram photo-sharing service according to reports on the rbc news wire. VKontakte applied to Apple a few days ago to have the application distributed through the U.S. tech giant’s online App Store, the report said. It is also developing a version of the application for the Android mobile operating system, the sources told RBC.
The launch will put VKontakte in direct competition with Instagram on the domestic market. Instagram is owned by U.S. social network Facebook, which bought the company in 2012 for around $1 billion.
The new app will provide complete synchronization with the VKontakte social network and photographs uploaded on the desktop version of the website will also be visible on the application, and vice versa.