The co-founders of popular social media platform Instagram have decided to leave its owner company Facebook.
Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger started Instagram in 2010. Facebook then acquired it in 2012 for $1 billion. According to Bloomberg, the social media platform is now worth $100 billion.
The founders have reportedly stepped away from Facebook amid growing tensions with chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg about where the photo and video sharing app is headed.
Systrom shared the news of his and Krieger’s departure via a post on Instagram. He stated the reason for leaving as “to explore our curiosity and creativity again”.
Read the full post below.
Mike and I are grateful for the last eight years at Instagram and six years with the Facebook team. 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.
We’re planning on leaving Instagram 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.
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. We look forward to watching what these innovative and extraordinary companies do next.