July 22, 2014 at 12:27Instagram life after the sale
When the inhabitants of Silicon Valley subsided after Facebook’s sensational purchase of the WhatsApp messenger and startups with even greater motivation earned in coworking in the hope of becoming the next stars, another interesting question arose - what happens to the companies bought in a year or two? Dan Toffey, a communications manager for Instagram, who turned out to be the fifteenth hired employee, answered. He came to the company just before Facebook bought a photo service for $ 1 billion in 2012.
After the transaction was completed, the Instagram team moved to the Facebook office, where it now occupies one of the buildings. The relocation of the company was under the terms of the agreement, while Facebook, for its part, promised not to interfere in its work and provide it with all the conditions for further growth.
When asked whether the culture within the company had changed after the sale, Dan replied that the spirit remained the same, but the team had grown very much. At the time of the sale, there were 16 people, now Instagram has more than 130 employees.
There is no pressure from Facebook - the changes affected only the business model. Now Instagram employees no longer have the goal of making money, the main tasks for them today are:
1) The growth of the user base;
2) Attracting corporate users - as one of the company's marketing channels - and providing them with assistance in positioning their activities;
3) Building a worldwide community among users.
“So,” Dan sums up, “we can continue to pursue our initial ideas without being distracted by the financial issues Facebook takes over.”
A special department works with corporate users, providing educational assistance in maintaining a corporate page.
Currently, Instagram has 6 offices in different parts of the world, the main tasks of which are to support and promote the most active users. So, when Roman Palchenkov, a well-known Russian instagrammer, went to California, the guys from the Moscow representative office reported to the head office and arranged for him to visit Facebook headquarters, where Roman came with a number of wishes and comments on improving the application.
Instagram is doing its best to popularize its movement. So, one of the last promotions was the sending of some active users to the opening of the Olympic Games to broadcast events.
When asked to express his opinion about the adventure with the purchase of WhatsApp, Dan replied that if you compare the number of Instagram users at the time of the transaction, then it is similar to the same indicator for WhatsApp. At the same time, he noted that Instagram had an advantage in choosing a place for the office and the photo service managed to occupy the most convenient room. By the way, contrary to the established trends in the composition of the team after buying startups, all 16 employees still work on Instagram and continue to make a cool product every day for an increasing number of users, while using Facebook resources.
After the transaction was completed, the Instagram team moved to the Facebook office, where it now occupies one of the buildings. The relocation of the company was under the terms of the agreement, while Facebook, for its part, promised not to interfere in its work and provide it with all the conditions for further growth.
When asked whether the culture within the company had changed after the sale, Dan replied that the spirit remained the same, but the team had grown very much. At the time of the sale, there were 16 people, now Instagram has more than 130 employees.
There is no pressure from Facebook - the changes affected only the business model. Now Instagram employees no longer have the goal of making money, the main tasks for them today are:
1) The growth of the user base;
2) Attracting corporate users - as one of the company's marketing channels - and providing them with assistance in positioning their activities;
3) Building a worldwide community among users.
“So,” Dan sums up, “we can continue to pursue our initial ideas without being distracted by the financial issues Facebook takes over.”
A special department works with corporate users, providing educational assistance in maintaining a corporate page.
Currently, Instagram has 6 offices in different parts of the world, the main tasks of which are to support and promote the most active users. So, when Roman Palchenkov, a well-known Russian instagrammer, went to California, the guys from the Moscow representative office reported to the head office and arranged for him to visit Facebook headquarters, where Roman came with a number of wishes and comments on improving the application.
Instagram is doing its best to popularize its movement. So, one of the last promotions was the sending of some active users to the opening of the Olympic Games to broadcast events.
When asked to express his opinion about the adventure with the purchase of WhatsApp, Dan replied that if you compare the number of Instagram users at the time of the transaction, then it is similar to the same indicator for WhatsApp. At the same time, he noted that Instagram had an advantage in choosing a place for the office and the photo service managed to occupy the most convenient room. By the way, contrary to the established trends in the composition of the team after buying startups, all 16 employees still work on Instagram and continue to make a cool product every day for an increasing number of users, while using Facebook resources.