Once upon a time, Kevin and Mike loved playing with pictures. They created the Instagram app in 2010 to share their passion for photography and image composition, in particular the famous square format.
The app, though, grew much bigger and more powerful than the two dads ever expected!
It became one of the biggest social media platforms on the globe, with a roaring billion users, and definitely expanded its scope beyond the fundamental purpose of sharing.
In 2012 uncle Mark came knocking at the door. At that time, it seemed all good in the hood. The number of users and the number of employees was growing, the functionalities were expanding, and a lot of money was being crunched. All of this, though, was not enough for the two parents. The uncle’s presence soon became an uneasy ordeal.
Firstly, they had to copy the neighbouring Snapchat’s Stories function, which wasn’t digested well by the two. Then, they had to push hard on the new e-commerce tools that were released recently.
So, with enough money in their pocket and way too much monetization ongoing in the app (at least for them) they decided to leave the Facebook kingdom wearing shiny armour and living happily ever after.
Apparently, uncle Mark really likes the “my way or the highway” approach, but we have to recognize that, despite all the criticism on data protection and privacy, he’s got a really keen eye for business growth.
There’s no way to tell how this story is going to end. Kevin and Mike are probably going to build something new and wonderful that will pull users away from Mark’s powerful reach.
Instagram will keep on growing into a giant commercial platform.
What’s sure is that the big momentum which characterized this company could be close to an end now that the daddies have left. Or maybe not…
