Into the fold? What's next for Instagram as founders leave

SAN FRANCISCO — When Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger sold Instagram to Facebook in 2012, the photo-sharing startup's fiercely loyal fans worried about what would happen to their beloved app under the social media giant's wings.

None of their worst fears materialized. But now that its founders have announced they are leaving in a swirl of well wishes and vague explanations, some of the same worries are bubbling up again — and then some. Will Instagram disappear? Get cluttered with ads and status updates? Suck up personal data for advertising the way its parent does? Lose its cool?

Worst of all: Will it just become another Facebook?

"It's probably a bigger challenge (for Facebook) than most people realize," said Omar Akhtar, an analyst at the technology research firm Altimeter. "Instagram is the only platform that is growing. And a lot of people didn't necessarily make the connection between Instagram and Facebook."

Instagram had just 31 million users when Facebook snapped it up for $1 billion; now it has a billion. It had no ads back then; it now features both display and video ads, although they're still restrained compared to Facebook. But that could quickly change. Facebook's growth has started to slow, and Wall Street has been pushing the company to find new ways to increase revenue.

Instagram has been a primary focus of those efforts.

Facebook has been elevating Instagram's profile in its financial discussions. In July, it unveiled a new metric for analysts, touting that 2.5 billion people use at least one of its apps — Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp or Messenger — each month. While not particularly revealing, the measurement underscores the growing importance Facebook places on those secondary apps.