Instagram Co-Founder Claims App Could Have Thrived Without Meta – Yahoo Finance

Kurt Wagner Tue, Apr 22, 2025, 1:10 PM 5 min read In This Article: (Bloomberg) — Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom testified that his fledgling photo-sharing app could have succeeded without being acquired by Meta Platforms Inc., and that eventually Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg treated Instagram’s growth as a “threat” and starved it of resources. Most Read from Bloomberg DOGE Visits National Gallery of Art to Discuss Museum’s Legal Status Trump Gives New York ‘One Last Chance’ to End Congestion Fee Trump Administration Takes Over New York Penn Station Revamp The Racial Wealth Gap Is Not Just About Money The claims could bolster the US government’s monopoly case against the social networking giant as it argues to unwind the 2012 acquisition. In testimony Tuesday during Meta’s antitrust trial in Washington, Systrom recounted how quickly Instagram was growing before Zuckerberg’s offer. “The users, they just kept coming,” Systrom recalled from the stand under questioning by US Federal Trade Commission lawyer Bob Zuver. FTC lawyers displayed a chart of Instagram’s growth before the acquisition that showed registered users increased 13-fold in 2011, the year before the deal. Systrom said that he believed Instagram was capable of launching several important features, including support
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