Instagram. Tama Leaver

Systrom and Krieger fought hard to ensure Instagram was thought of, and seen, as a separate platform, Adam Mosseri’s tenure as Instagram’s Head shows no such commitment. Yet even as Zuckerberg’s integration plans were being discussed in the media, German regulators effectively put up the first major roadblock as they attempted to enact a law that would prevent sharing data between the various services Facebook owns without much more explicit user consent being sought (Kraus 2019; White, Bodoni & Nicola 2019).

While the technical integration of elements of Facebook, Instagram and other Facebook apps and platforms is likely to happen in some form or other, whether this paints Instagram as more like Facebook in the public eye, or not, remains to be seen. Even as Facebook’s reputation took a battering in 2018, its profits did not, so either way, Instagram and Facebook are here to stay. Perhaps tellingly, though, in Facebook’s first 2019 earnings report, the company noted they would be moving away from giving user statistics for each platform or service they own, instead reporting grouped ‘Facebook family metrics’ in the future, noting there were 2.7 billion Facebook family users by the end of 2018 (Constine 2019). This subtle change clearly shows that Facebook expects its biggest growth to come from the other platforms it owns, including Instagram, not the Facebook platform by itself. In 2018 Facebook introduced a menu item in Instagram called ‘Open Facebook’, and then doubled down on this decision in 2019 when they confirmed that a future update would add the text ‘Instagram by Facebook’ in the Instagram menu. These are further indications of the importance of Instagram to Facebook’s current and future commercial success.

Conclusion

      This chapter has mapped some of the bigger changes and challenges Instagram has faced since it was released in October 2010. The platform’s initial competition and growth, being purchased by Facebook, changing the way it works with third-party apps, beating Snapchat at its own game by rolling out Stories, and using Stories to reinvigorate growth while diversifying the tools inside Stories, are all a big part of what makes Instagram what it is today. Yet the challenges, as Systrom and Krieger left and Adam Mosseri took over, show there is still a lot of change ahead, and the shape of Instagram more tightly under Mark Zuckerberg’s control may look quite different in years to come. Most importantly, this chapter shows that Instagram is constantly changing, both in and of itself, and as part of a broader visual social media landscape, and those changes need to be kept in mind in order to understand what Instagram is, where it has come from, and where it is likely headed.