Towards the end of September, Instagram co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger departed from Facebook without much of an explanation. A week later, Facebook chose Adam Mosseri, who has been working at the company since 2008, to take over as head of product for Instagram. But it seems like that was an interim solution, as the social network has appointed another new leader, Vishal Shah.
Shah was already playing a pretty important role at Instagram, managing its shopping and advertising components as well as the recently-launched IGTV service. With this promotion, he will be overseeing all of the social network"s efforts. Adam Mosseri, who will be passing on the role to Shah, expressed his excitement about the promotion:
"I am thrilled that Vishal Shah is Instagram’s new Head of Product. Vishal is an experienced manager with deep product knowledge who lives out Instagram’s values of people first, simplicity, and craft. He is a great addition to our leadership team and I look forward to working with him in this new role."
It"s still not quite clear why the co-founders of Instagram left so abruptly, but it could that Facebook is trying to find more ways to monetize its users" data, similarly to what happened with WhatsApp. if that"s the case, Shah"s promotion could represent a big shift for Instagram going forward.
Source: Recode