Snapchat Snags Facebook-Instagram Executive to be New COO

emily white - instagram director

Facebook may now regret not offering rising mobile messenger service Snapchat more money in its buyout attempt. Snapchat appears to be gaining even more steam on the social network giant, managing to pry away top executive talent from Instagram.

Snapchat snagged Emily White, the former director of business operations for Facebook’s Instagram unit, to become its new chief operating officer. “We’re thrilled to have Emily as part of the Snapchat family,” a Snapchat spokesman told AllThingsD.

The heist appears to have come at a critical time, with Instagram ramping up its video advertising business, a project on which White was a central architect. Just today we also spotted Facebook testing auto-play videos in the desktop News Feed, which could be a precursor for introducing video ad units on Facebook as well.

How did Instagram executives react to the move?

“I cannot thank Emily enough for her contributions to Instagram. She was tasked with getting the first ads products out the door ― and she did that beautifully,” said Kevin Systrom, Co-founder of Instagram.
 
Featured image by Alison Yin / The Wall Street Journal

Daniel Zeevi

By Daniel Zeevi

Daniel is a social network architect, web developer, infographic designer, writer, speaker and founder of DashBurst. Full-time futurist and part-time content curator, always on the hunt for disruptive new technology, creative art and web humor.