Instagram co-founder and former chief executive Kevin Systrom suggested Monday that things weren’t so great at Facebook Inc.
“No one ever leaves a job because everything’s awesome.” Kevin Systrom
Systrom spoke at Wired’s 25th anniversary event in San Francisco, in his first public comments since he and his Instagram partner Mike Krieger unexpectedly resigned from Facebook in September.
“Think about when you leave anything, there are obviously reasons for leaving,” he told Wired’s Lauren Goode during an interview.
Systrom did not go into details as to why he left, but said he had “no hard feelings at all” toward the social-media giant. In 2012, Facebook bought the photo-sharing service for about $1 billion. While it had operated with relative independence for much of that time, there had been reports that the two co-founders had chafed as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg asserted more control over Instagram over the past year.
Instagram has grown exponentially since Facebook’s acquisition, and now has more than 1 billion monthly active users. Instagram started selling ads in 2014, and while Facebook FB, -0.14% does not break out Instagram’s revenue, analysts estimate it will make between $10 billion and $16 billion in 2018. Earlier in September, Instagram announced new e-commerce features to simplify shopping within the app.
Systrom said Monday that he’s proud of the legacy he’ll leave with Instagram, and he’s leaving his future a question mark for now.
“I don’t have any plans yet, except to hang out for a little while,” he said. “I think I have a few more Instagrams, time-wise, in me. I’m not sure we’ll ever do anything nearly as impactful.”
