Gigaom: Facebook lacks soul

So Facebook bought Instagram for a billion dollars. That’s a lot of dough.

I’m a bit saddened by the news. And I don’t think I’m the only one.

Om Malik sums up why:

Facebook lacks soul. Instagram is all soul and emotion.

Zuck is shrewd. He’s a visionary. He’s bold. He’s confident. He’s smart.

But he hasn’t infused Facebook with a whole lot of soul.

I suspect this is at the core of Steve Jobs’ dislike of Zuck.

We live in a world in which we don’t just want great products with great design and great features that work well.

We want to engage with companies that have a soul.

When no such company exists to fulfill our needs, we’ll take the company that fulfills our needs.

But as soon as we have a choice, we’ll gravitate towards the company with a soul.

That’s why I’m sad that Instagram sold out to Facebook, instead of doing their own thing, pursuing their own vision and dharma, and seeing how far they could take it.

But a billion dollars is a lot af money.