For nearly 10 years, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger have led Instagram, first independently, then later as a bright spot in the greater Facebook hellscape. And in the last few years, Instagram has stood in stark contrast to Facebook as a pretty harmless way to spend your time flipping through nice holiday photos. The service has also continued grow, hitting a billion users this past June.
But amidst reported “clashes” with Mark Zuckerberg, Systrom and Krieger decided to leave the app and Facebook behind, taking only lots and lots of money with them. Taking over is Adam Mosseri, who’s been at Facebook since 2008 and played a major role in creating and shaping super-beloved and not at all hated products such as the Facebook News Feed.
In a statement published to Instagram’s company blog, the platform’s founders said: “We are pleased to announce that Adam Mosseri, our current vice president of product, will become the head of Instagram starting today.
“We are thrilled to hand over the reins to a product leader with a strong design background and a focus on craft and simplicity — as well as a deep understanding of the importance of community. These are the values and principles that have been essential to us at Instagram since the day we started, and we’re excited for Adam to carry them forward.”
Mosseri was previously a design director at Facebook for more than 10 years before he joined Instagram as vice president of product, but now he will oversee all functions of the business including engineering, product and operations.
In an Instagram post, Mosseri wrote, “Last week, @kevin and @mikeyk announced that they’re leaving Instagram. “The impact of their work over the past eight years has been incredible. They built a product people love that brings joy and connection to so many lives. “I’m humbled and excited about the opportunity to now lead the Instagram team. “I want to thank them for trusting me to carry forward the values that they have established. “I will do my best to make them, the team, and the Instagram community proud.”
Mosseri will be reporting to Chris Cox and is seen as the most logical replacement for Systrom. Announcing the move in a blog post, the duo said “To us, the most important thing is keeping our community — all of you — front and center in all that Instagram does. We believe that Adam will hold true to these values and that Instagram will continue to thrive.”
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