Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook's strategy tax
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Mark Zuckerberg on rebranding Facebook, spinning off Instagram, Facebook’s strategy tax, antitrust regulation, and network collapse
From: Mark Zuckerberg
To: Chris Cox; Javier Olivan; Mike Schroepfer; Sheryl Sandberg; David Wehner; [REDACTED]
Sent: 5/3/2018 1:17:12 AM
Subject: Thoughts on Family Management -- privileged and confidential
Confidential -- do *not* share beyond this group
I am growing more convinced that we are approaching our family strategy incorrectly -- especially around Instagram. While we believe our current trajectory will yield strong business growth over the next 5 years, I worry it will also undermine our global network effect, erode our corporate brand, impose an increasingly large strategy tax on all our work, and then over time we may face antitrust regulation requiring us to spin out our other apps anyway.
We are at a moment where we are about to cement our family of apps strategy in a reorg and updated financial reporting. This is also a moment of reflection about our brand and the regulatory environment we face. Before we move forward, we should check in on our strategy and establish how we'd like to operate.
I'll describe what I see as the five primary issues with our current strategy and suggested remedies for each.
1. Cannibalization and Network Collapse