Did Facebook starve Instagram?

The conversation covered an array of burning issues in the climate-sustainability-urbanism arena: public-private partnerships, skilled worker shortages, trade concerns, the science of energy storage. Many thanks to guest Ryan Panchadsaram for bringing the heat and Deloitte for helping us cook with gas.

For those who missed it, a haiku:

Align incentives
Meet people where they are
Turn off the damn lights

The news below. —Andrew Nusca

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Facebook believed Instagram was a threat to its growth

It’s been more than a decade since Kevin Systrom sold Instagram to Facebook, but the memories remain.

After the acquisition, “Mark [Zuckerberg] was not investing in Instagram because he believed we were a threat to their growth,” Systrom said Tuesday.

The Instagram cofounder gave more than six hours of testimony in the federal antitrust trial that has ensnared the company now known as Meta. 

Systrom’s perspective, which contradicts Meta’s defense, supports the U.S. government’s case that Meta bought Instagram in 2012 to defang competing social media services.

Last week, Zuckerberg testified that Meta invested heavily in Instagram after the deal. Yet Systrom said on Tuesday that he left the company in 2018 because of a distinct lack of investment in Instagram. 

Fast-growing Instagram had ballooned to one billion users and 40% of Facebook’s size, but enjoyed just 1,000 employees, compared to 35,000 at Facebook, Systrom said.

“He felt a lot of emotion around which one was better, meaning Instagram or Facebook,” Systrom said of Meta’s CEO. “And I think there were real human emotional things going on there.” —AN

OpenAI would buy Google Chrome if it could

Things keep getting spicy in the proceedings for United States v. Google, which will determine the penalty for the company’s illegal search monopoly.

The latest? OpenAI’s Nick Turley allowed that his employer would buy Google’s Chrome browser if a federal court orders it to be divested.

“Yes, we would, as would many other parties,” the ChatGPT chief said.

OpenAI’s chatbot is currently available in Chrome via a downloadable extension. But the notion of deeper integration? Compelling, Turley said.

“You could offer a really incredible experience,” he said, adding that OpenAI could show users “what an AI-first experience looks like.” (Which is, admittedly, a little bit of a burn.)

Turley testified that OpenAI struggles with distribution. The company has done a deal with Apple to integrate ChatGPT into its devices, but it has failed to do the same with Google Android-based smartphones.

Google pays Samsung to pre-install its own chatbot, Gemini, on phones. But the deal isn’t exclusive.

OpenAI’s Big Tech frenemies “control the access points for how people discover products,” Turley said. “Real choice drives competition. Users should be able to pick.” —AN

Apple replaces Siri leadership with Vision Pro execs

It’s a changing of the guard in Cupertino.

Mike Rockwell, the new head of engineering for Apple’s Siri virtual assistant, is replacing much of the leadership for the service with executives from his Vision Pro software group, according to a Bloomberg report.

Rockwell is also reportedly restructuring the teams related to performance, speech, understanding, and user experience.

The changes come as Apple grapples with an aging and relatively incapable Siri. The assistant debuted in 2011, two years before Amazon’s Alexa; now both companies are under pressure to keep up with savvier AI chatbots. 

What’s more, Apple centered the marketing for its latest iPhone 16 around its Apple Intelligence suite of AI-driven features, in which Siri plays a key role. But they failed to impress and were beset with delays.

Rockwell was handed his new responsibilities last month at the expense of AI chief John Giannandrea and former Siri boss Robby Walker.

The Vision Pro execs he has tapped for Siri duty reportedly include Ranjit Desai (platform), Olivier Gutknecht (experience), Nate Begeman (architecture), Tom Duffy (architecture), Stuart Bowers (understanding), and David Winarsky (voice). —AN

More tech

—Boeing to sell digital aviation assets. Jeppesen, ForeFlight, and more head to Thoma Bravo for $10.55 billion.

—Global PC shipments rise 6.7% year over year. Tariff worries and AI PC sales helped.

—Duolingo to add chess lessons. Duo isn’t mad at your opening move, he’s just disappointed.

—U.S. pressures India to open up to Amazon, Walmart. The nation has barriers against foreign e-commerce companies.

—SAP shares jump 9%. Q1 profit jumped 58%, even though cloud revenue was up 26%, slightly missing estimates.

—Google Chrome will still use third-party cookies. An about-face on previously announced policy.

—SK Telecom hacked. South Korea's largest telco says customer data (authentication keys, usage data) was accessed.

—Instagram launches Edits, its ByteDance CapCut-killer.

—Venture capitalists brace for U.S. tariff impact: “A world of hurt” for anyone doing business across borders.

—48% of teens say social media has “a mostly negative effect on people their age.”

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