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

november25–december8, 2019 | newyork 43

on. I’d say that most of the

pressure is thinking, What

part of my life can I share?

AmI coolenough?Aremy

friendsdoingsomething

withoutme?Atthebegin-

ning,thiswasa community

of photographers and

designers.Theideawas

morethatyouhadthese

creatives, and yougave

thema fun,creativetool.

Very quickly, it morphedas

morepeopleusedit forjust

showingyourlifeonthego.

Theonedecisionthat I

thinkmadethisa potentialissuewasthatit

waspublicbydefault,soit meantthat if you

werewillingtoshareyourlife,peoplewould

follow.Then,themoreinterestinglifeyou

have,themorejealousothersmightbecome.

It diverged.

Whileyouwere watchingthathappen,

whatwereyouthinking?

Initially, theideawashowdoyoumaxi-

mizethenumberofpeoplethatuseit?

Facebookcreatedthat science.We adopted

it,andit workedreallywell.Theinflection

pointhappenedwhenwestartedranking

feed.Becauseallofa sudden,it wasn’t just

whopostedandwhen.Whenwestarted

rankingfeed,in 20 16,a lotofpeoplecom-

plained,butit’ s very clear:Peoplewith

rankedfeeduseit a lotmore.Peoplewith-

outrankedfeeduseit less.We gotreally,

reallygoodat rankingfeed.Usagewent

throughtheroof.

Soyousawthisasa goodthing?

No.No,no.I don’t knowhowtoexplain

this,butin business,winningis alwaysgreat,

butwinningalwayscomesat somecost of

someotherpartof thebusiness.Allof a sud-

den,a normalusermightfeellike,Maybe

I shouldn’t postasmuch.MaybeI should

justlookatBeyoncé^6 .Or,If

I’mgoingtopost,it betterbe

good. That wasn’t great,

becausewewerebuiltupon

thefabricofpeoplesharing

theirdailylives.I wasscroll-

ingthroughmyfeedyester-

day; I think I probably

lookedat 40or 50 posts,

tryingtofinda singleoneof

myfriends.It wasallbrands.

That’sa transitionthat hap-

pened:Instagrambecame

a marketingtool,because

wehadthiscriticalmass.

That change—theinventionofthis

wholeinfluencereconomyandcreating

busin

fromt

seemedtooutpacetheapp’scapabilities.

How did you negotiate

that?

At the beginning, when

weweresmall,therewere

noinfluencers.^7 I think

once we crossed,say, I

don’t know, 100million

people,it became clear

thatyoucouldmaybestart

to haveaninterestingbusi-

nessifyouwerejuston

Instagram.Butitwasn’t

untilwewere,say, 600or

700 millionusingthatapp

that I reallystarted to

noticeit.AndI thinkthe

first contextwhereit wasraisedwasjust

aroundadvertising,becausealltheseinflu-

encersweregoingdirect tothesebrands,

andthesebrandswereconfusedbecause

theydidn’t knowhowtheadvertisingper-

formancecomparedtoournativeadvertis-

ing.That wasoneof thequestionswehadto

dealwith.

Doyouthinkwhena plat-

formbecomesdominated

withbrands, it’s thekissof

death?

Clearlynot,becauseInsta-

gramis doingvery well.ButI

felttheneed,astheleader

andthefounder,togetus

backto a placewherewe

wouldprotect that family-

and-friendssharing.Sowetookthatfeed

rankingandweprioritizedfriendsandfam-

ily. Thatkeptpeopleontheplatform.Then

weintroducedStories.^8 It createdthisout-

let wherepeoplecouldsharetheirliveson

thegobutnotfeeltheneedtohaveit look

perfect ona profile.Theycouldlimitthe

audience.They could begoofyifthey

wantedto.

I useStoriesapproximately 25 times

a day. I loveitverymuch.

Theconsensusinsideof

Instagram-Facebookwas

not that this thing was

goingtowork.Butthenwe

launchedit, andallof a sud-

den,wesawthistorrentof

contentproduction. My

point:Youcancrushyour

companyundertheweight

ofsuccess. But anyway,

backingup,I thinka lot

aboutthesocialef fects.

I thinka lotaboutwhat it

doesinpeoples’lives.Also,yousaidwell

adjusted.I wanttocounter, whichis that—

Really?

No,no.In chool,I wasthetall,

nerdyguywh omputerscienceand

electronicmusic,bytheway, whenelec-

tronic music was not cool. David Guetta

wasn’t headlining—

Yeah, you had a radio station out

ofyour—

Yeah,totally. Dormroom.Butmy point

is,I wasnotthecoolkid.

Butyouseemlike youhave a healthy

relationship, let’s say, toimagery andthe

world.HaveyouseenthemovieIngrid

GoesWest,forexample?

I haven’t, no.

It’s anAubreyPlazamovieinwhichan

Instagramobsessive stalksaninfluencer.

It’sa verydarkmovie.

Thatsoundsdark,yeah.

It’s anextremestudyofthefemalepsy-

chologyofheroworship. I think,fora lot

ofwomen,theemotionsandexperiences

offlippingthrougha magazine, withfit-

nessidealsandbeautystandardsandallof

that,havebeentranslatedtoInstagram.

Well,I thinkoneof thebiggestchallenges

ofsocialmediaisthatyouneedtowork

reallyhardtomakesureyoudon’t puton

yourhatasyoubutasthe

userwhenyou’rebuildingthe

project. We didenormous

amountsof focusgroupswith

teens;understanding how

theyusetheproduct, under-

standing what they liked,

whatthey didn’t like.ButI

don’t have a teen in my

household.

Butyoudonowhave a child?

A2-year-oldwhodoesn’t usesocial

media.

Willyouletherusesocialmedia?

Ofcourse.

Atwhatage, doyouthink?

Whateverthelegalage is,which,right

now,is 13intheUnitedStates.

Mostkidshave itmuchyoungerthan

that.

That is nota fact I cansubstantiate.

Okay,I’lljustsay, anecdotally, mostof

theparentsI knowgenerallyseemtogive

theirkidsphonesaround9, 10, 11.Social

mediaaround11,12.

See,I’mnotintheseparentcircles.Most

ofthekidsthatI meet, at least inSilicon

Valley, maybebecausetheirparentsworkat

thesecompanies,theyknowtheage is 13.

Doyouthinkyou’llmonitorherInsta-

gramaccount?

Ofcourse.I’mgoingtobea normal

parent.Butalso,if Instagram’saround 12

yearsfromnow,that’sawesome.SoI’m

goingtobevery happyif I’mgoingtohave

a conversationwithmy daughterabout

Instagram.

Mydaughter’s alreadymovedontoTik-

Tok.She’s 14.ButI’mstillwaryofhowshe

performsherlifeonline.Whatwillyousay

4 @Franciscus’sfirst

Instagrampost,March2016.

3 Nowfoodis created

sp ecificallyforInstagram,as with

@vibrantandpure’s“Unicorn

Toast”(c reamcheese,natural

fo odcolorants,bread)in 2016.

PHOTOGRAPHS:

PREVIOUS

SPREAD

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@KA

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@LESP

AULINE

(BA

THROOM)

5

In April 2012, Systrom

and Krieger agreed to sell

Instagram, with all

13 employees, to Facebook

for $1 billion. At the

time, it was Facebook’s

biggest acquisition.

‘Times’ best seller and his own Febreze commercial; Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama’s ‘Infinity Mirror Rooms’ become the perfect selfie backdrop; the Paul Smith store in L.A. becomes an influencer destination. 2018

Model Katarina Zarutskie posts a photo of herself being

bitten by a shark

; Thousands watch as

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

makes macaroni and cheese in her Instant Pot;

Will Smith’s

entry to the #inmyfeelings dance craze; the Google

Arts & Culture App

lets people

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