Get Access to Editor’s Digest for Free!
During a recent high-profile antitrust trial, it was revealed that Mark Zuckerberg had contemplated separating Instagram from Meta. The US Federal Trade Commission presented a confidential 2018 email in court where Zuckerberg expressed concerns about the possibility of being forced to spin out Instagram and WhatsApp in the next five to 10 years as pressure to break up big tech companies increased.
The antitrust regulator has accused Meta of stifling competition by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp in 2012 and 2014, respectively, and has called for the undoing of these deals. Zuckerberg’s email from 2018 discussed the challenges Meta faced in managing the two apps and the potential impact on the Facebook platform.
Zuckerberg raised the idea of spinning out Instagram as a separate company to address operational difficulties and promote independence between the teams working on different apps. He also mentioned the importance of retaining Instagram’s founder, Kevin Systrom, to ensure the app’s continued success.
Systrom eventually left Meta in 2018 as Facebook exerted more control over Instagram. Zuckerberg acknowledged in his email that while most companies resist break-ups, there is a historical trend of improved performance post-split.
Although Zuckerberg emphasized that the decision to spin out Instagram was not immediate, he recognized the possibility that the company’s efforts to build a family of apps could be jeopardized in the future.
