Instagram boss to move to London after outrage over app’s recent changes

Move comes days after parent company Meta posts first revenue decline in history

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri is reportedly moving to London later this year amid the platform’s stiff competition with rival app TikTok.

The planned move, which would be a temporary relocation, comes days after Instagram faced widespread criticism for its recent updates.

Several users and influencers on the platform, including Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, raised complaints that the app was focusing more on videos than photos and that the interface had become similar to TikTok.

The company had also received backlash for an announcement last week that it would dramatically increase the number of posts in people’s feeds from accounts they don’t follow.

Following the outrage, Mr Mosseri said the Meta-owned company is taking a “big step” back to “regroup” and discuss what’s next for Instagram.

“I’m glad we took a risk — if we’re not failing every once in a while, we’re not thinking big enough or bold enough,” he said.

“But we definitely need to take a big step back and regroup. [When] we’ve learned a lot, then we come back with some sort of new idea or iteration. So we’re going to work through that,” he said in a video statement.

The Instagram chief said while the platform was going to become “more video-focused over time,” it would still “continue supporting photos”.

With Mr Mosseri’s relocation, the company could attempt to take advantage of the cheaper cost of labour in London compared to the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters.

“London is already Meta’s largest engineering hub outside of the US, with over 4,000 employees across our offices, including a dedicated Instagram product team with people focused on building long term solutions for creators,” a Meta spokesperson told The Guardian.

The latest move also comes days after Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta posted its first revenue decline in history.

Meta blamed the problems on a weakening economy, lesser money being spent on ads, and competition from TikTok.