Instagram Head To Relocate To London After Backlash

The head of popular photo-sharing app Instagram, Adam Mosseri, is to temporarily relocate to London later this year, as he seeks to increase its UK workforce.

According to the Guardian, Mosseri will move to the company’s offices in King’s Cross London, amid intense pressure from rivals such as TikTok, which has been downloaded more than three billion times according to analytics company Sensor Tower.

The development comes days after Instagram temporarily rolled back its shift to full-screen videos and recommended content, after celebrities made public their disapproval of the changes.

TikTok battle

The company had been heavily promoting Reels – full-screen videos similar to those found on rival TikTok – by modifying its algorithm to insert popular Reels into users’ Instagram feeds.

And the company made it clear it planned to continue its shift toward full-screen videos and recommended content.

But it has backtracked for the time being, after users had complained they were seeing fewer images from accounts they followed, and were instead receiving “video after video from random pages I don’t follow”.

Celebrities Kylie Jenner and her half-sister Kim Kardashian joined in the criticism of the shift.

They both pleaded with parent Meta by sharing the “make Instagram Instagram again. (stop trying to be tiktok i just want to see cute photos of my friends.) Sincerely, everyone” message.

London relocation

Now according to the Guardian, Instagram’s Mosseri will temporarily relocate to London.

“Given the global nature of his role, Adam will be temporarily based out of London later this year,” a Meta spokesperson told the Guardian.

“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,” the spokesperson added.

The 39-year-old will reportedly be seeking to hire more staff in London’s product team because it is cheaper to recruit tech professionals in London than in San Francisco, where the company is headquartered.

Instagram could also take advantage of changes to research and development tax credits that offer incentives for innovation, according to reports first appearing in the Financial Times.