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Facebook Makes Moves On Instagram's Users (bloomberg.com)
Facebook is trying to get Instagram users to visit its site more often by further entwining the two services. According to Instagram user Spencer Chen, the Instagram app prompted him to check out a friend's new photo on Facebook. "Chen grabbed a screenshot and posted the notification on the internet, calling it a cry for attention by the older social network," reports Bloomberg. From the report: Instagram says what Chen experienced was a product test with a small contingent of users. Still, Instagram feeds Facebook in other ways. Last year, Facebook launched its own version of an Instagram tool called Stories, which lets people post videos that disappear within 24 hours. (The feature was initially copied from Snap Inc., a competitor.) Greenfield noticed the Facebook version became more popular once it became possible for Instagram users to post their stories in both places with the click of a button. Instagram Stories' 400 million users present a significant opportunity for Facebook's advertising business, according to Ken Sena, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities. Instagram is on track to provide Facebook with $20 billion in revenue by 2020, about a quarter of Facebook's total, he wrote to investors. And cross-posting could help Facebook's video ambitions.
Hopefully their attempts at integration result in them ruining both services to the point that people go elsewhere. I recall a fairly large revolt when Google tried to shackle YouTube users with their own social network, although I don't think anyone really used that social network.
However, I suspect that it doesn't really matter what they do. The next generation is going to want to find a new social network precisely so they can get the fuck away from their parents, teachers, and relatives. It doesn't matter if it's better or worse, every new generation doesn't want to keep listening to their father's rock and roll.