Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, founders of the popular social media app Instagram, have announced that they are leaving Facebook. While an official reason is missing in the announcement, tension with CEO Mike Zuckerberg has been rumored as the reason behind the move.
The pair joined Facebook after the app was snapped up by Facebook in 2012. Despite that, Instagram was still being run independently from the social media company, with the two having control over the direction of the app.
According to people familiar with the matter, Zuckerberg has increased his involvement with the app of late. As Facebook struggles to add more users to the social media platform. He mentioned that the app grew twice as fast under Facebook, which many insiders see as a rather unnecessary comment from the CEO.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BoIvH_Fgdxm/?taken-by=kevin
In a blog and Instagram post, Systrom said that he and Krieger are, “…planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again. 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.”
As the duo departs the company, there are fears that Instagram will be even more tightly integrated into Facebook or even absorbed as part of the main app altogether. As of now, there is no mention of their replacement, so the future of the app is still up for speculation.
(Source: Bloomberg)
