New York Magazine - USA (2019-11-25)

42 newyork| november25–december8, 2019

Whatdoesitfeellike toseetheworld

changedbyInstagram?

It ’s reallystrangetometowalkdownthe

street andseepeopleusinga product that

I remembervery clearlymaking.Whenwe

launched,^1 I thinkit was 24 hourslater,

therewassomeoneusingit

onthesubwayontheway

home.I wasblownaway. But

wedidn’t set outtochange

theworld;wejustset outto

makea goodproduct. We got

fairlyluckyinthat, it turns

out,whatwewanted,a lotof

otherpeoplewanted.That’s

notlostonme,butit is kind

oflostonme.

Onerecentconcreteexampleofhowit

changedcultureisthatI wenttoa music

showandtheyconfiscatedourphones.

Yeah,I wenttoa comedyshowonce,

wheretheyputtheminthesesecret bags.

There’sa clubI like togoto, andtheylit-

erallysaidyoucannotuseInstagraminthis

club.Theownersaid,“It’s really,reallydis-

ruptivetotheexperienceofbeinghere.”

Dopeopleevercomplaintoyou?

Allthetime.Buttheyjust wanta verified

badge.Theydon’t complainabouttheprod-

uct, no.

Really?Nooneeversays toyou—

You’rementioningpeopleretractingfrom

Instagraminsomeway. I seethat askindof

likehipcoffeeshopsthat banWi-Fibecause

theywantmoreconversation.I getit.Butit

alsoistheotherway. Youwalkintoany

museumtoday:Tenyearsago, they banned

photography;nowthey’relike,“No,take

photosofyourselfwiththeart.It’sgreat

publicity.”^2 Fashionshows,nowthey’reliter-

allydesignedtobeanInstagrammable

event.Therearerestaurantswhosedishes

areef fectivelyplatedtobeInstagrammed.^3

I gota f ows hat t -

matio em he

forIns man o

pleguyscancreatesomethingand,ina

fewyears,shift theworldinsomemean-

ingfulway.

Didyoupersonallysignhimup?

Yeah.I wenttoVaticanCity twice.The

first time was to present the idea. I

explainedwhy, nomatterwhoyouare,if

youhavesomethingtosay,

Instagram’stheplacetodoit.

Hesaid,“Well,my teamwill

lookatthisandgivemetheir

decision.Butthey’renotin

charge,becauseeveryonehas

a boss.”He pointedat himself.

Hesaid,“EvenI havea boss,”

andhepointedupinthesky. I

thoughtthatwasreallyfunny.

Afewweekswentby, andthey decided

collectively—hedecidedthey weregoingto

signup.They calledbackandsaid,“Canyou

comebacktosignhimup?”I waslike,

“Well,youjust fill outa form.It’sreallyeasy.

Youjust click.” My COO

cameoverandelbowed

meintheshoulderand

waslike,“Yougetyourself

toRome.”We showedup,

andhewasfinishingMass.

Wehadjust flownin.We

were bleary-eyed. He

walkedin,andheturned

the corner and goes,

“Kevin!”It waslike seeing

anoldfriendfromyour

basketballteam.It was

sucha funmomentforme.

Just his humility and

friendlinessthroughout

the whole process was

pretty awesome.We hadaniPad,andit was

allsetup.Thenamewasfilledout.So,liter-

ally, allhehadtodowasclicksignup.

Whendidyoufirststartthinkingabout

sellingInstagramtoFacebook?^5

F hile, e prettysteadfastthat

we oin independent.In fact,

we a ve oundmaybetwodays

beforewesoldthecompany. ThenMark

[Zuckerberg]cameinandeffectivelydou-

bledthevaluationandpitcheda reallycom-

pellingversionof thefuturewherewecould

worktogetheroncreatingthisthing,butit

wouldstay independentandwewouldget

tobuildit. Thegoalwasnottosellthething.

Wehadtonsof interest fromfolksalongthe

way, andwejust said,“No, thankyou.” Basi-

callyFacebookjust cameinat theright

moment.Really,wesaw it asa way ofaccel-

eratingthesuccessofInstagram.

Theideaofscaling hasexplodedinthe

pastdecade—evenjustthetransformation

ofwhatyousoldInstagramfor, $1billion,

versuswhatit’s worthnow, $100billion.

Howdoyouevenwrapyourmindthat?

We’veentereda worldwherethere’s basi-

callyzeromarginalcosttoexpand.In the

past,if youwantedtosellanothercar, you

hadtobuildanothercar.It tooka longtime

andanenormousamountofmoney. Then

that carwent out, and

maybeyousoldit,maybe

youdidn’t. WhereasInsta-

gram’skindoflike—imag-

ineyoubuildanimaginary

car.If it’s a goodimaginary

car,allof a suddena billion

peopleareusingit.

Yousaythere are zero

costs,butnothingiszero

cost,literally. Thereare,

potentially,humancosts

orhiddencosts.I think

you,asa confident,well-

adjustedguy—

I appreciate that I

fooledyou.

Didyouanticipatetheimpactitwould

haveonaudiencesmore pronetoinsecu-

rity thanyou?

ThepeopleI havemet andtalkedto,they

typicallyexpressthepressureto feellike they

haveto putontheideathat they’relivingthis

perfect life,that they go outeverynight,that

theyspenda tonofmoney, that they’rewith

fancypeople,that they’reskinny, thelist goes

ontheworldstandssix-foot-five-inchestallandhasthecarefuldemeanorofsomeonewhoknows people are

listeningcloselytowhat he’s saying.Talkingtohim,onegetsthesensethat he’s a stepahead—that forhim,conversation

is a gameandhe’s mappingoutpotentialoutcomes.That’swhy, forexample,hewon’t bebaitedintorecklessproclama-

tionsaboutimpendingclasswarsorMarkZuckerberg’scomplicatedrelationshiptopolitics.Atthesametime,hepos-

sessestheex citedcuriosityofa kiddiscoveringthesolarsystem.Thisis a manwhoco-foundeda company at 26that

madehima billionairebythetimehewas 32 (todayhe’s 35).Evenaftera decadethat hasleft many peopleconfusedby

theroleofsocialmediainourlives,KevinSystromholdsfast totheoriginalpremisesofSiliconValley:Technologycan

improveourlives,connectingpeoplehelpshumanity, andtechguysaren’t just init forthemoney.

The man who unleashed Instagram

1 SystromandMike

Kr iegerlaunched

In stagramon October5,

2010. It had25,000users

bytheendof theday.

PHOTOGRAPHS: PREV

OUS SPREAD, @KEV

N (SYSTROM, DOG); @JENNLEE (F

RST SELF

E); @MURADOSMANN (GLOBETROTTERS); @FEL

C

ATHEGOAT (TRUMP); © @SEB_GORDON (SUNSET); @VP44 (OBAMA); @VERSACE (

CE BUCKET

CHALLENGE); @KENDALLJENNER (HA

R); @CABELLCOFFEE (LATTE); @DAV

DBE

CKHAM (BECKHAM); @EM

LYSCH

LD

T (TOAST); @LADYGAGA (BEH

ND THE S

CENES); @BADD

EW

NKLE (

GRANDMA); @COLOURWARS (NA

L AR

T)

thirst trap; Gitane NYC is credited with bringing

avocado

toast

to
the
U.S.
in
the
aughts;

Lady

Gaga

documents

bleaching

her
hair;

Baddiewinkle,

ast
ylish
grandma

from

Tennessee,

tops
am
illion

followers;

nail

art,
plus
millennial

pink—two

Instagram

trends

that
have

not
let
up.

(^2) 016:
2 JeffKoons’s 2014 retrospective
markedthefirsttimetheWhitney
Museumsuggesteda hashtag
to its visitors:#Koonsand#ArtSelfie.
FOOTNOTES
Cristiano Ronaldo, the most-followed person on Instagram, cradling a trophy from his Euro 2016 win; the Museum of Ice Cream opens; Grumpy Cat. 2017 Doug the Pug parlays Instagram success into a New York
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