Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

When Zuckerberg Asserted Control, Instagram’s Founders Chafed

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 117 posts

Re: When Zuckerberg Asserted Control, Instagram’s Founders Chafed

#81

Post by jjeaff »

eksemplar wrote: post #78
40acres wrote: post #20

I'm not sure that Facebook using Instagram as a way to funnel people back to Facebook is a great strategy. Companies need to be willing to cannibalize themselves or someone will do it for them. I don't know if Zuck had the foresight at the time, but Instagram has obviously been an amazing hedge against apps like Snapchat. People like Instagram and Snapchat partly because they are less formal than Facebook, most users…

I saw some usage data in a quartz article, that I can’t find, earlier this week. Facebook was the most popular social media platform across teenagers, millennials, generation x and baby boomers. The real interesting data was in teenagers though, their most popular platform is Snapchat, but none of the platforms had managed to make more than 40% of teenagers create an account with them. I think this is interesting bec…

I'm guessing that data was based on simply having an account? Because I feel like teenagers all have a Facebook account, but few actually use it with any frequency.

Re: When Zuckerberg Asserted Control, Instagram’s Founders Chafed

#82

Post by tomjakubowski »

ianhawes wrote: post #9

One thing omitted from the Instagram genesis story is that they effectively stole the Hipstamatic "filters" feature and added a basic timeline a la Twitter. Sharing to Twitter fueled their growth from that point. And the rest is history!

Around the same time as these there was another app that made you drag a depiction of your photo around a mock darkroom to "develop" it with those "filters".

Re: When Zuckerberg Asserted Control, Instagram’s Founders Chafed

#83

Post by MBCook »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #82
ianhawes wrote: post #9

One thing omitted from the Instagram genesis story is that they effectively stole the Hipstamatic "filters" feature and added a basic timeline a la Twitter. Sharing to Twitter fueled their growth from that point. And the rest is history!

Around the same time as these there was another app that made you drag a depiction of your photo around a mock darkroom to "develop" it with those "filters".

Wasn’t that the app that had the genius idea to make your photos more “important“ by charging you an in app purchase for “film“ so you would only take pictures of things that mattered?

Re: When Zuckerberg Asserted Control, Instagram’s Founders Chafed

#84

Post by tsenkov »

eksemplar wrote: post #78
40acres wrote: post #20

I'm not sure that Facebook using Instagram as a way to funnel people back to Facebook is a great strategy. Companies need to be willing to cannibalize themselves or someone will do it for them. I don't know if Zuck had the foresight at the time, but Instagram has obviously been an amazing hedge against apps like Snapchat. People like Instagram and Snapchat partly because they are less formal than Facebook, most users…

I saw some usage data in a quartz article, that I can’t find, earlier this week. Facebook was the most popular social media platform across teenagers, millennials, generation x and baby boomers. The real interesting data was in teenagers though, their most popular platform is Snapchat, but none of the platforms had managed to make more than 40% of teenagers create an account with them. I think this is interesting bec…

> I think this is interesting because it shows that Facebook isn’t really sucking that much worse than Instagram and that Instagram isn’t going to save Facebook on its own.

I think this is a stellar observation. Fb, right now, is only a dominant force for users of age 30+ and the battle for the next generation(s) is just starting out. Instagram does show the most significant growth but isn't a clear winner, yet.

Re: When Zuckerberg Asserted Control, Instagram’s Founders Chafed

#85

Post by sp527 »

jbigelow76 wrote: post #49
sp527 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol at the flak being hurled at this guy like we wouldn't all do exactly the same thing, were we in his position.

Not true, I would have stuck it out for another year for the extra $850 million.

I meant the snipes about having sold to Facebook in the first place.

Re: When Zuckerberg Asserted Control, Instagram’s Founders Chafed

#87

Post by ENGNR »

Apocryphon wrote: post #18

"Mark Zuckerberg was asked if Instagram could have hit one billion users if it had not been bought by Facebook. Probably not, he said. At least, not as quickly. [...] Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, had a slightly different answer to that question. Perhaps. Eventually. We will never know who was right." What if, Instagram had merged with Snapchat instead?

Their ideas around product design are basically opposites, it would be a pretty rough merger I think

Re: When Zuckerberg Asserted Control, Instagram’s Founders Chafed

#89

Post by jakequade »

eksemplar wrote: post #78
40acres wrote: post #20

I'm not sure that Facebook using Instagram as a way to funnel people back to Facebook is a great strategy. Companies need to be willing to cannibalize themselves or someone will do it for them. I don't know if Zuck had the foresight at the time, but Instagram has obviously been an amazing hedge against apps like Snapchat. People like Instagram and Snapchat partly because they are less formal than Facebook, most users…

I saw some usage data in a quartz article, that I can’t find, earlier this week. Facebook was the most popular social media platform across teenagers, millennials, generation x and baby boomers. The real interesting data was in teenagers though, their most popular platform is Snapchat, but none of the platforms had managed to make more than 40% of teenagers create an account with them. I think this is interesting bec…

Because I see people sharing Instagram posts on Facebook through the integration, I’ve considered creating an account

---

It's been possible to share directly to Facebook for a long time - the change was that the facebook posts stopped indicating the photos were from instagram. There used to be links and references back, but now they seem native.

One could argue that this could have privacy benefits (i.e. you don't have direct access to their instagram profile from facebook anymore), but in any case it's part of Facebook wanting Instagram to fuel native Facebook use.

Re: When Zuckerberg Asserted Control, Instagram’s Founders Chafed

#90

Post by relyio »

40acres wrote: post #20

I'm not sure that Facebook using Instagram as a way to funnel people back to Facebook is a great strategy. Companies need to be willing to cannibalize themselves or someone will do it for them. I don't know if Zuck had the foresight at the time, but Instagram has obviously been an amazing hedge against apps like Snapchat. People like Instagram and Snapchat partly because they are less formal than Facebook, most users…

>'m not sure that Facebook using Instagram as a way to funnel people back to Facebook is a great strategy

It's a stupid strategy. All my friends (early 20s) are hardly active on Facebook, if at all and instead prefer the likes of Instagram and Snapchat for a simple reason: you can actually share your life with your friends and see theirs.

Speaking for myself, I hardly care about my Facebook account. My feed is plastered with garbage content and tired memes. I understand why they made the shift to being a content-consumption platform but it seem very short-sighted given that the content is low-quality, redundant, and seriously getting boring now.

I wager that people, like myself, are looking for an actual online social network. That's why I like Instagram, I can actually see videos and photos of my friends, whether it is celebrating their birthday, sightseeing, dancing at a party, or simply going through the grind of everyday life.

Not being a product-visionary, I cannot tell what drives Facebook to adopt this strategy but I find it puzzling that they could fail to understand that my demographic is leaving Facebook (in terms of engagement) because it is hardly social anymore. In fact, it is more akin to a worse 9Gag/Reddit/Buzzfeed mashup, with the occasional aunt or elderly family friend sharing some obscure article using CAPS LOCK.

I don't remember seeing anyone I know publish a status or a photo album in the past... what, three or four years?

> think it'd be smart to simply enhance Instagram's ad platform

The amount of ads has exploded over the past few months, it has made the product far less enjoyable for me. I don't mind ads but it bother me that they disguise it as content in your feed.

>If people start to become dissatisfied w/ Instagram because of "Facebook-ification" that may open up a market for a new competitor.

I think Snapchat would be in a nice position to take-over. I do prefer Instagram over it, but at this point I'm just desperate for a platform that doesn't sucks or isn't headed that path.

Post reply on HN