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Not sure I believe this. Instagram could’ve conceivably killed Facebook a decade ago if they’d chosen not to sell. Reminds me of Steve Jobs talking about Microsoft bringing about the dark ages of desktop computing: https://512pixels.net/2010/05/the-desktop-computer-industry-....



Then the question becomes whether Instagram would’ve become Facebook if they kept going. I believe they would have once they hit Facebook’s scale.

Ironically, I believe you could take that Jobs quote, swap Apple for Microsoft, and you’d be talking about the mobile industry. I doubt I’m even the first person to observe that. You really do become the villain if you gain enough market dominance.


The dark age of social networks was absolutely started the second Facebook bought Instagram. We're still in it.




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