The news first came out in the New York Times, who said the pair will be leaving in the coming weeks.
Facebook is expected to name in the coming days Adam Mosseri as the new leader of Instagram, people familiar with the matter told the Information. He is a Facebook veteran who already serves as VP of product at Instagram. Marne Levine, who was previously Instagram’s COO, moved earlier this month to Facebook as VP of global partnerships and business development.
Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 for USD 1 billion. The service has since been valued at 100 times its acquisition price by Bloomberg Intelligence, on paper.
Executive disagreement
The co-founders did not always have a smooth relation with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and their departure could be a sign of change for the Instagram app. Systrom and Krieger sold the service on the understanding that there would be no changes. That did not always fit Facebook’s plans, according to the Wall Street Journal. The paper's sources said there were frequent clashes between Zuckerberg and the Instagram founders over a range of issues, including how independently the co-founders could operate. They were also upset about how some product tweaks to the app seemed designed to promote Facebook growth, at the expense of Instagram.
Meanwhile, Instagram seemed to be more popular product than the core Facebook platform among certain market segments, and especially the young. The app passed the 1 billion user mark in June, helped by younger users who had Facebook accounts but weren’t using them as much.
Problems began to appear in May. Many Instagram executives were caught off guard when a management shake-up appeared to give Systrom less access to Zuckerberg, according to a person familiar with the matter. Until then, Systrom had often discussed product plans directly with the CEO. The change appeared to now insert a layer.
Since late last year, and particularly in recent months, Instagram and Facebook officials have intensified disagreements over issues such as the app’s autonomy within the larger organisation and Facebook’s growth tactics. Facebook teams began exerting more control over their Instagram counterparts, prompting some top executives to leave, some sources said. A few weeks ago, for example, Instagram’s marketing division was integrated into Facebook’s marketing team, sources said.
This spring, disagreement arose over the rollout of Instagram’s long-form video hub called IGTV. The service launched this summer as both a stand-alone app and a section of the primary Instagram app to allow users to post high-definition videos. Ahead of the launch, some Facebook executives argued that the product would compete with Facebook Watch, another long-form video hub. Systrom prevailed, but the fight took its toll, a source said.
Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives started preparing a few months ago for the possibility that the Instagram co-founders would leave, a person familiar with his thinking told the WSJ. Their departure follows those of the founders of other major services bought by Facebook, such as Oculus VR and WhatsApp. People familiar with their relationship said Systrom and Krieger were close allies and that neither would have stayed if the other one left.
