About Time: Instagram Moves to LondonBy Angelica Malin
Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, is set to make a move to London, away from parent company Meta’s San Francisco hub. This will make London the social media platform base for the foreseeable future and could include a boost to employment in the engineering sector.
Meta’s Problems
Meta has faced many problems over the past year, related both to Instagram and its many other products. Last quarter’s revenue showed a decline for the first time in the company’s history, putting pressure on Mosseri and his close associate Mark Zuckerberg. As well as a drop in revenue, its costs and expenses had increased by around 22%, with a staff increase of 32%.
Part of this downturn in fortune can be traced to the influence of other players in the social media environment. TikTok has been the biggest contender with its video-sharing app. A recent change to Instagram and its algorithms, to more closely match their competitors, has faced hostility from users. Even celebrities such as Kim Kardashian spoke out about the changes, which prioritise monetised content from creators over videos posted by friends and people users choose to follow.
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All this has been taking part while Meta has forged ahead with a disastrous attempt into its Metaverse, an online world that is part social, part e-commerce and part business. Many believe it is apparent that this is not something consumers need or want, with plenty of other platforms serving the intended function better.
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Why London Makes Sense
Outside of the United States, London is Meta’s biggest hub for engineering. Not only does it have 4000 employees in the capital, but it also has a longstanding connection to the Instagram brand. The messaging app was first developed here and dedicated products and creator teams are in the city.
Another reason is that Meta may be looking to take advantage of tax credits for research and development. Introduced by Rishi Sunak in his tenure as chancellor, it is also known that the head of Meta met with Nadine Dorries to discuss to talk about the company’s continued presence in the UK. If this had anything to do with the move is unknown.
Who is Adam Mosseri?
Mosseri came to Meta, then known as Facebook, in 2008 and was pivotal in developing the platform’s news feed. In 2018, Instagram was acquired by the Facebook group and when the original creators quit, he took charge.
Meta has stated the move is to oversee and assist the creator team in their day-to-day activities. Part of this will be to do with realigning the goals of the platform after its disastrous shift and helping focus on how creators can monetise their content. Rather than having people use the platform to advertise to consumers directly, it is aiming to allow them to build an e-commerce platform in the metaverse, seemingly whether or not people want it.
