Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger quit Facebook, six years after their company Instagram was acquired by the largest social network.
The departure of the founders of Instagram came at a time when their idea is gifted as charismatic and over a year with a lot bad reviews for Facebook.
So with all the challenges faced by Facebook's basic application, it will be important to continue to protect Instagram's vision and not allow it to be downgraded. Facebook has long faced the mistrust of its users (and not only), governments, security specialists, and personal data protection activists.
The reason for the departure of Systrom and Krieger was their dissatisfaction with Zuckerberg after trying for a long time to exercise greater control over Instagram. It is not clear, however, just what was the point that exasperated Systrom and Krieger.
Η Wall Street does not seem excited about the news, as Facebook shares fell in the morning after the announcement of the departure of the founders of Instagram.
It's too early to tell what this leadership change will bring to Instagram, a service that recently reached 1 billion monthly active users. However, below we will venture to mention three changes that we may see very soon, led by Facebook.
More alerts between the two services that will encourage Facebook and Instagram data crossing
One of the sources of tension between Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the founders of Instagram was Zuckerberg's desire to display more cross-publications between Facebook and Instagram.
TechCrunch Reported that Facebook was on procedure to add a shortcut to Instagram's bookmarks menu, while Bloomberg has he says that some Instagram users were starting to receive alerts when their friends posted photos in their Facebook main application.
Following the resignation of Systrom and Krieger, they are being replaced by a high-profile Facebook executive. This will open the path for the cross-exchange of information between the two services.
There are many reasons why Facebook wants to do this. The number of active users in North America - where average revenue per user is higher than in the rest of the world - has remained steady in the main Facebook application, while it has been very high on Instagram. In addition, the Instagram user base has younger ages than the Facebook base, so acquiring these Instagram users from Facebook is crucial to building a customer base in two different applications.
More ads in Instagram
Zuckerberg said he believes more users will share content in Instagram Stories instead of the traditional news feed in the coming years. Instagram Stories has so far been very promising, as it has more everyday active users from Facebook's Stories.
Most ads come from Facebook and not from Instagram, but Instagram has more end-user involvement. Facebook will not miss the opportunity to take advantage of more advertisers from Instagram. We should expect more aggression on ads from Systrom and Krieger.
Experiments with Instagram algorithms
The new head of Instagram could be Adam Mosseri, who was responsible for Facebook's News Feed. Mosseri was in the past one of those responsible for redesigning Facebook's Big News. This year, it gave priority to presenting content from family and friends instead of content from pages and more.
Instagram's News Feed faces different challenges than Facebook. The fake news εξακολουθούν να είναι ένα πρόβλημα, αλλά λιγότερο έντονο από αυτό του Facebook, δεδομένου ότι η πλατφόρμα έχει λιγότερους χρήστες. Στο Instagram όμως παρατηρείται μεγαλύτερος εκφοβισμός (bullying), κάτι το οποίο είναι ιδιαίτερα ανησυχητικό δεδομένου του νεότερου της ηλικίας των μελών του Instagram. Πέρυσι η εταιρεία πρόσθεσε ένα φίλτρο με το οποίο οι χρήστες μπορούσαν να προσθέσουν για να κρύψουν επιθετικά σχόλια. Φέτος προστέθηκε ένα φίλτρο που φιλοδοξεί να κρύψει σχόλια που “προσβάλλουν την ευημερία ή την υγεία ενός ατόμου”.
At a time when Facebook faces similar toxicity problems, Instagram could be an important field of testing to determine what it takes to develop and maintain a healthier News Feed.
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