Facebook Is Stealing a Page From Google's Playbook

By Tim Beyers – Apr 24, 2013 at 8:30PM

NASDAQ: META

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Executive to join Instagram team to help bring ads -- or so it seems

What YouTube is to Google (GOOGL 0.55%), Instagram is about to become for Facebook (META -0.52%). Or so it would seem.

Emily White, an ex-Google executive who helped shape AdWords, is now at Instagram and working on an ad strategy for the platform, AllThingsD reported recently. YouTube first adopted ads in 2007. Six years later, the unit produces an estimated $2 billion in ad-related revenue annually.

White's move may foreshadow efforts to impose similar cash-generating discipline on Instagram's chaos, says Tim Beyers of Motley Fool Rule Breakers and Motley Fool Supernova. If successful, it would provide exactly the sort of growth catalyst Facebook needs right now.

What do you think of Facebook's strategy with Instagram? Please watch the video below to get Tim's full take, and then leave a comment to let us know whether you'd buy, sell, or short Facebook stock at current prices.

Fool contributor Tim Beyers is a member of the Motley Fool Rule Breakers stock-picking team and the Motley Fool Supernova Odyssey I mission. He owned shares of Google at the time of publication. Check out Tim's web home and portfolio holdings or connect with him on Google+, Tumblr, or Twitter, where he goes by @milehighfool. You can also get his insights delivered directly to your RSS reader.

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