Instagram co-founders, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, have announced their resignation from the trending social media platform to explore “their curiosity and creativity again”.

In a statement released on their individual Instagram pages, the pair thanked the team that worked with them saying they have grown from thirteen people on the team to over a thousand with offices around the world.

Systrom and Krieger did not say why they were leaving their positions as the chief executive officer and chief technical officer, but there were reports that their departure might be due to tensions between the men and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

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Facebook bought Instagram in 2012 for one billion dollars. The photo-sharing app has over one billion active monthly users and has grown by adding features such as messaging and short videos.

The statement reads;

“@mikeyk and I are grateful for the last eight years at Instagram and six years with the Facebook team. We’ve grown from 13 people on the team to over a thousand with offices around the world, all while building products used and loved by a community of over one billion.

“We’ve loved learning to scale a company and nurture an enormous global community. And we couldn’t have done it without our amazing Instagram team, and the support of @zuck, @sherylsandberg, @schrep, and @chriscox at Facebook – we’ve learned so much from all of you. Now, we’re ready for our next chapter.

“We’re planning on taking some time off to explore our curiosity and creativity again. Building new things requires that we step back, understand what inspires us and match that with what the world needs; that’s what we plan to do.

“We remain excited for the future of Instagram and Facebook in the coming years as we transition from leaders to just two users in a billion.

“Thank you for being part of Instagram’s community. It’s been (and will continue to be) an honour ??.”