Honestly they're doing the right thing with buying the likes of Instagram and WhatsApp and keeping them at arms length rather than slathering them in Facebook integrations and branding, which is something Yahoo in particular never learned and IMO was a big factor in them accidentally suffocating Flickr and tumblr. Of course the Apple provoked porn ban was the final nail in the coffin for tumblr but the direction was clear well before that
WhatsApp is still a negative investment atm. I’m sure Instagram is printing money like Facebook but it relies on the same mechanisms, and thus will fall with Facebook.
Instagram has been an absolute dumpster fire for the last two or three years - it's no longer a photography platform, it's a meme, "influencer", celeb, and viral video platform. Tear it down.
The only recent saving grace is that I'm seeing more photographic content, the problem is that's from other photographers who are promoting their work via paid ads - they're not going to grow their following that way and TBH a lot of it is pretty mediocre.
Any recommendations on photo platforms to use if I want to passively share my photos with my friends and family? Network effects are pretty hard to overcome.
They likely won’t take any of their acquisitions down with them. They’ve been pretty good about keeping them mostly separate. They’ll be spun off in any eventual liquidation.
Unless you think they are being mismanaged or mismarketed now?
