One Big Thing: Instagram's Future

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the Instagram founders' leaving Facebook and the importance of cofounders. This week, I want to talk about what I hope Facebook does now that Instagram is fully under its umbrella. In short, I hope the answer is "not much."

First and foremost, Facebook should resist the temptation to try to coax Instagram users to move to Facebook. Instagram has proven itself as a strong stand-alone platform - and one that can make money at that. A big part of that is Facebook's fantastic ad network, which is pretty inarguably Facebook's strongest business asset.

Second, keep Instgram simple. With the IG TV launch, it's clear that Instagram is becoming more complicated. There's something to be said for a certain level of feature-addition, but there is also such a thing as too much. Instagram's core appeal is ease-of-adoption, it's always been easy to use right out of the box. The Facebook app is getting to be overloaded, and Facebook on desktop is borderline out-of-control. The minute this happens to Instagram, it's done.

Finally (for now), understand the evolution of social media. Facebook is just a decade old, but it's the social media grandparent. The thing is, that's fine! It has a huge cash base and has enjoyed a decade of growth and profitability. Facebook needs to understand that social media is changing, and a lot of that has been driven by one of its core properties - use it.

Maybe Facebook is becoming "old hat." Even if that's the case, that doesn't mean it has to bow out. It needs to evolve. Look at Microsoft now compared to ten years ago. It's a very very different company, and a great example for Facebook to follow.

So the less Facebook does to Facebook-ify Instagram, the better, as TechCrunch's Josh Constine (@JoshConstine) shows in his deep dive into this topic. What do you think? Let me know at sree@sree.net or tweet me, @sree #sreenewsletter

- Sree (writing this week from NYC after spending Saturday in Boston for the Boston Book Festival, where I spoke on a panel with neuroscientists and others about the ills of social, on a panel called "Twitter Ate My Brain." Next Sunday, I'll share what I Iearned and one critical aspect of social media I wish I'd talked about, but didn't). 

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More than 90% of the world's data has appeared in the past two years. We've already seen both the positives and negatives from our newly-connected age - but what comes next? 

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