Instagram co-founders latest executives to leave Facebook

AppleInsider

Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have resigned from their posts at Facebook and will depart the company in the coming weeks, leaving the massively popular photo sharing app solely in the hands of Facebook executives for the first time.

Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom (left) and CTO Mike Krieger. | Source: Toyokeizai

CEO Systrom and CTO Krieger notified Instagram leadership and Facebook about their departure on Monday, according to The New York Times.

Following the report, Systrom posted a short message to Instagram's official blog confirming the move, saying he and Krieger are "now ready for [their] next chapter."

"We're planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again," Systrom said. "Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs; that's what we plan to do."

Over the past eight years, the co-founders turned Instagram into a social media monolith with more than one billion users worldwide.

The app started life on Apple's iOS platform in 2010, quickly rising through the ranks to become one of the App Store's most popular titles. Instagram remains in the upper echelon of the App Store, currently sitting in the No. 2 spot for free-to-download apps behind Google's YouTube.

Systrom and Krieger did not explain the reason for their departure, sources said.

The resignations are the latest in a series of high-profile departures for Facebook. Over the past few months the social network lost a number of high-ranking executives, including VP of communications and public policy Elliot Schrage and VP and general counsel Colin Stretch, amidst criticism over the company's data collection policies. In April, WhatsApp founder Jan Koum, who joined Facebook when the messaging app was purchased by Facebook in 2014, announced he was leaving after expressing concern over the company's handling of user data, The Times said.

It was in April that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced Congress to explain how political data consulting firm Cambridge Analytica gained unauthorized access to the personal data of some 87 million users.

Facebook, as well as other social media platforms including Instagram and Twitter, were also condemned for their part in disseminating false information leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Specifically, Russian operatives created accounts and Facebook groups, bought ads and conducted maneuvers with an intent to disrupt the election process.

Whether Systrom and Krieger took their leave due to Facebook's user data woes is unclear, though a report from TechCrunch cites tensions with Zuckerberg as a potential catalyst for action.

Facebook purchased Instagram six years ago for $1 billion in what is seen as its most successful acquisition to date.

ireland

I read an article a while ago that Congress were concerned that tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon have become too powerful. There has been talk about them trying to introduce regulation that companies valued over $100B could no longer acquire companies: Facebook wouldn’t have been able to acquire WhatsApp etc. So companies would have to compete with the giants as opposed to being swallowed by them. I’d love to see such regulation. Cellphone companies would be forced to complete, as would ISPs, and tech companies wouldn’t swallow the world wholesale. At the very least, I think, if a company is worth $100B (and possibly less) they shouldn’t be able to acquire any company with millions of users.

Instgram and companies like them build their companies up on the backs of their users (with help from investors) and when they grow big enough they sell their users down to river to big data... Facebook in this case.

I think it’s time to start breaking up some of these giants and having in place some sensible regulation to protect the users who grow these companies and our democracy. In an ideal world where we did the right by users, we wouldn’t need such regulation, but we don’t live in that world. In big business we live largely in a world where greed trumps common sense and ethics, and we need protection from such corporate digestion.

radarthekat

ireland said:

I read an article a while ago that Congress were concerned that tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon have become too powerful. There has been talk about them trying to introduce regulation that companies valued over $100B could no longer acquire companies: Facebook wouldn’t have been able to acquire WhatsApp etc. So companies would have to compete with the giants as opposed to being swallowed by them. I’d love to see such regulation. Cellphone companies would be forced to complete, as would ISPs, and tech companies wouldn’t swallow the world wholesale. At the very least, I think, if a company is worth $100B (and possibly less) they shouldn’t be able to acquire any company with millions of users.

Instgram and companies like them build their companies up on the backs of their users (with help from investors) and when they grow big enough they sell their users down to river to big data... Facebook in this case.

I think it’s time to start breaking up some of these giants and having in place some sensible regulation to protect the users who grow these companies and our democracy. In an ideal world where we did the right by users, we wouldn’t need such regulation, but we don’t live in that world. In big business we live largely in a world where greed trumps common sense and ethics, and we need protection from such corporate digestion.

Seems arbitrary and reactionary.  There are rules already, fairly well thought out, regarding how businesses should operate.  Let’s not place arbitrary constraints on what should remain a robust free market system.  

SpamSandwich

ireland said:

I read an article a while ago that Congress were concerned that tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon have become too powerful. There has been talk about them trying to introduce regulation that companies valued over $100B could no longer acquire companies: Facebook wouldn’t have been able to acquire WhatsApp etc. So companies would have to compete with the giants as opposed to being swallowed by them. I’d love to see such regulation. Cellphone companies would be forced to complete, as would ISPs, and tech companies wouldn’t swallow the world wholesale. At the very least, I think, if a company is worth $100B (and possibly less) they shouldn’t be able to acquire any company with millions of users.

Instgram and companies like them build their companies up on the backs of their users (with help from investors) and when they grow big enough they sell their users down to river to big data... Facebook in this case.

I think it’s time to start breaking up some of these giants and having in place some sensible regulation to protect the users who grow these companies and our democracy. In an ideal world where we did the right by users, we wouldn’t need such regulation, but we don’t live in that world. In big business we live largely in a world where greed trumps common sense and ethics, and we need protection from such corporate digestion.

I’d actively work to vote out of office any politician who proposes such an anti-capitaliistic view. In a competitive environment, companies which best serve their customers will become astoundingly successful. That’s exactly the right outcome.

sflocal

ireland said:

I read an article a while ago that Congress were concerned that tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon have become too powerful. There has been talk about them trying to introduce regulation that companies valued over $100B could no longer acquire companies: Facebook wouldn’t have been able to acquire WhatsApp etc. So companies would have to compete with the giants as opposed to being swallowed by them. I’d love to see such regulation. Cellphone companies would be forced to complete, as would ISPs, and tech companies wouldn’t swallow the world wholesale. At the very least, I think, if a company is worth $100B (and possibly less) they shouldn’t be able to acquire any company with millions of users.

Instgram and companies like them build their companies up on the backs of their users (with help from investors) and when they grow big enough they sell their users down to river to big data... Facebook in this case.

I think it’s time to start breaking up some of these giants and having in place some sensible regulation to protect the users who grow these companies and our democracy. In an ideal world where we did the right by users, we wouldn’t need such regulation, but we don’t live in that world. In big business we live largely in a world where greed trumps common sense and ethics, and we need protection from such corporate digestion.

Absolute nonsense.  The LAST thing we need is  more government.

studiomusic

Did their "stay with Facebook until this date" clause from their acquisition recently expire?