In a surprise, the co-founders of Instagram announced their intention to resign form the company that they had founded but offered no explanation about the reason of their departure.
According to a statement issued by the social media platform’s Chief Executive Kevin Systrom issued late on Monday, he along with co-founder and Instagram's chief technical officer, Mike Krieger, had decided to quit the company within the next few week with the intention of exploring their “curiosity and creativity again."
"Mike and I are grateful for the last eight years at Instagram and six years with the Facebook team," Systrom said. "We've grown from 13 people to over a thousand with offices around the world, all while building products used and loved by a community of over one billion. We're now ready for our next chapter."
"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," Systrom said. "We remain excited for the future of Instagram and Facebook in the coming years as we transition from leaders to two users in a billion."
The co-founders did not give any specific reason for their decision of leaving the company that they had formed in 2010.
Instagram was bought out by Facebook in 2012 at a time when the photo sharing social media app was about to issue their initial public offering. The price, $1 billion, which Facebook had paid for the startup at that time had surprised many because the platform firm did not have any profits to show and was not very well known at that time. At the time when the deal took place, no- advertisements were shown on Instagram but had a very loyal following of about 31 million active users - all on smartphones. After the takeover, the membership of Instagram has reached the 1 billion mark and is generating revenues with quite a bit of advertisements.
According to a spokesman, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the co-founders of Instagram to be two "extraordinary product leaders". "I've learned a lot working with them for the past six years and have really enjoyed it. I wish them all the best and I'm looking forward to seeing what they build next," Zuckerberg said in the statement to the media through the spokesperson.
The exit however poses some challenges for Facebook. Instagram has assumed importance for Facebook primarily because it is very popular among teens and young people which are groups that the largest social media platform in the world has not been able to always continuously keep in its fold.
Further, Instagram has remained insulated from the problems faced by Facebook with respect to user privacy, foreign elections interference and fake news, despite the photo sharing app also being vulnerable to those issues.
(Source:www.nbcnews.com)
According to a statement issued by the social media platform’s Chief Executive Kevin Systrom issued late on Monday, he along with co-founder and Instagram's chief technical officer, Mike Krieger, had decided to quit the company within the next few week with the intention of exploring their “curiosity and creativity again."
"Mike and I are grateful for the last eight years at Instagram and six years with the Facebook team," Systrom said. "We've grown from 13 people to over a thousand with offices around the world, all while building products used and loved by a community of over one billion. We're now ready for our next chapter."
"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," Systrom said. "We remain excited for the future of Instagram and Facebook in the coming years as we transition from leaders to two users in a billion."
The co-founders did not give any specific reason for their decision of leaving the company that they had formed in 2010.
Instagram was bought out by Facebook in 2012 at a time when the photo sharing social media app was about to issue their initial public offering. The price, $1 billion, which Facebook had paid for the startup at that time had surprised many because the platform firm did not have any profits to show and was not very well known at that time. At the time when the deal took place, no- advertisements were shown on Instagram but had a very loyal following of about 31 million active users - all on smartphones. After the takeover, the membership of Instagram has reached the 1 billion mark and is generating revenues with quite a bit of advertisements.
According to a spokesman, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the co-founders of Instagram to be two "extraordinary product leaders". "I've learned a lot working with them for the past six years and have really enjoyed it. I wish them all the best and I'm looking forward to seeing what they build next," Zuckerberg said in the statement to the media through the spokesperson.
The exit however poses some challenges for Facebook. Instagram has assumed importance for Facebook primarily because it is very popular among teens and young people which are groups that the largest social media platform in the world has not been able to always continuously keep in its fold.
Further, Instagram has remained insulated from the problems faced by Facebook with respect to user privacy, foreign elections interference and fake news, despite the photo sharing app also being vulnerable to those issues.
(Source:www.nbcnews.com)
