Facebook Inc (FB) Struggles To Convert Instagram Into A Cash Cow

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It appears that even though Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) acquired Instagram to allow the photo sharing app to grow faster with more focus on its development, following an interview of Instagram co-founder and CEO Kevin Systrom with Techcrunch, it has been acknowledged by Mr. Kevin that the social networking giant is yet to figure out how to create value out of the $1 billion deal it made with the photo sharing app company.

Facebook Inc (FB) Struggles To Convert Instagram Into A Cash Cow

It is apparent that Instagram, before being acquired by Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), was doing good and it never had to be concerned about making revenue, since it was sold quite early when it came out in the market.

Acknowledging, on the other hand, the increased number of its users after its acquisition, Systrom admits that the deal with Facebook went quite well, unlike the issue any merger faces at the time of acquisition.

Commenting on how things are advancing with Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) currently, Kevin says that the social networking giant is enabling Instagram to develop new products and grow faster.

However, a recent move by Instagram to disable support for media displayed cards on the rival social network, Twitter, has put a question over Facebook’s assurance about not jeopardizing Instagram’s independence at the time of its acquisition.

The affect of this move will reflect in the inability of Instagram images to appear on Twitter, and will require users to click on independent links to access images on Instagram.

Explaining the reason behind this development, Kevin said, “Because of that, we wanted to make sure we direct users to where the content lives originally, so they get the full Instagram experience,”

Earlier, on its status report site, Twitter reported that, ” Users are experiencing issues with viewing Instagram photos on Twitter. Issues include cropped images. This is due to Instagram disabling its Twitter cards integration, and as a result, photos are being displayed using a pre-cards experience. So, when users click on Tweets with an Instagram link, photos appear cropped.”

Defending the move to disable images to display in line with tweets, Systrom further explains:

“Mark Zuckerberg originally said that Instagram would continue sharing to Twitter, that still is true today. Obviously, things change as a company evolves and I don’t think we ever said nothing would change. We are always going to be improving the experience for users and we are always going to be making sure we evolve where we are. I want to make sure our users have the best experience.”

From one angle, this move clearly looks like an attempt to have people land on Instagram’s website to fulfill the purpose of monetization by way of advertisement on its own site.

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