Instagram founders left because of changes imposed from above

I don&#x27;t believe this will make much difference. I think the platform had already been in decline for at least the past year, because IG seems to be moving away from what made it compelling in the first place.<p>I don&#x27;t know what algorithmic changes they&#x27;ve made, but my experience is far less &quot;organic&quot; content from real people, and far more exposure given to the local IG celebrities, low-quality meme stuff optimised for engagement, and impersonal marketing stuff.<p>It used to be about people. I don&#x27;t think it is anymore.

&gt; “Social media is in a pre-Newtonian moment, where we all understand that it works, but not how it works,” Mr. Systrom told me, comparing this moment in the tech world to the time before man could explain gravity. “There are certain rules that govern it and we have to make it our priority to understand the rules, or we cannot control it.”<p>This is the person I want running a social media today.

Lately, Instagram has become very pushy. If you go to your profile page in the app, it shows notification badges at the top right corner for stuff that might have happened in the Facebook app. It&#x27;s so unnecessary! I&#x27;m sure FB wants to push more changes like that. All good things must come to an end ... sigh.

Facebook is going to get worse and so is Zuckerberg. I would short FB if I had a position.<p>The reasoning is, once you see a CEO installing loyal lieutenants. Who does not value conflicting, and opposing views. You know the company will loose the plot soon. With out any moderation from others I believe that FB will accelerate their disregard for their users while publicly communicating something else.<p>Fundamentally the Instagram founders and WhatsApp founders leaving is due to a values conflict with Zuckerberg and the culture at FB. My theory is there are the values they talk about and communicate externally, which is not congruent with what is practiced.<p>There was conflict due to these unspoken values and Zuckerberg took the easy way out. Install people loyal to him. This is a sign of weak leadership.<p>Edit:<p>It also seems like ego is getting the better of Z<p>“Severe cutbacks ordered by Mr. Zuckerberg in how much Instagram was promoted on the main Facebook platform”<p>Either that or instagram ads are not as profitable as FB?<p>Edit2: “That’s a shame, since that’s exactly what Facebook needs. Which is to say, people willing to challenge the groupthink that for too long included a stubborn resistance to admitting and addressing the company’s flaws.”<p>This is the biggest danger

I can tell they left. Right after they left, the number of ads nearly doubled and I was prompted to upload my phone&#x27;s contacts.

I wonder what drives people at this stage of success.<p>The article talks about a fight regarding weather or not to implement a TV like service into Instagram.<p>When you have built something like Instagram, is that really the next step you deeply care about? Implementing the next feature?

So that is why longer Instagram videos aren’t a thing yet? Zuck not wanting to risk competition with videos on FB? How stubbornly short sighted.