Instagram co-founders leave after eight years 'to explore creativity again'

Instagram’s co-founders have announced they are stepping down from the social media company.

Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s chief executive officer, and Mike Krieger, chief technical officer, will not be part of the platform in the next few weeks.

Instagram was co-founded by the duo in 2010, and in 2012 it was then ad-free and was bought by Facebook for $1bn (around £629m during that time). At this point, it had around 31 million users, and to this day it now has over one billion.

The duo said they would quit to “explore our curiosity again”.

Kevin said: “Mike and I are grateful for the last eight years at Instagram and six years with the Facebook team.

“We’ve grown from 13 people to over 1,000 with offices around the world, all while building products used and loved by a community of over one billion. We’re now ready for our next chapter.

“We’re planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again. Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs; that’s what we plan to do.

“We remain excited for the future of Instagram and Facebook in the coming years as we transition from leaders to two users in a billion. We look forward to watching what these innovative and extraordinary companies do next.”

Facebook’s boss, Mark Zuckerberg, added: “Kevin and Mike are extraordinary product leaders and Instagram reflects their combined creative talents.

“I’ve learned a lot working with them for the past six years and have really enjoyed it.”