WEBVTT - Instagram Gets Big 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.240 Get in touch with technology with tech Stuff from half 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:13.840 stuff works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:17.080 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer here 0:00:17.079 --> 0:00:19.680 at hell Stuff Works in a love all things tech. 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:24.160 And in that last episode about the birth of Instagram, 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:27.920 I described how Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger built the 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:33.280 app by paring down an earlier idea for a related app. 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:36.760 I left off right around two thousand twelve, after the 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:40.360 company had a successful second round of funding for seven 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:45.440 million dollars in early and saw its number of users 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:48.479 steadily increase, even though the app was only available for 0:00:48.560 --> 0:00:51.880 iOS at the time. By the end of two thousand eleven, 0:00:51.920 --> 0:00:54.280 celebrities were in on the game, with folks like Justin 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:58.240 Bieber giving the service a huge boost by making their 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:04.040 own accounts and sharing their photos with their baby Baby Baby. 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:08.320 In January two thousand and twelve, Instagram made another higher. 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:12.600 Philip McAllister joined the company as an engineer. He had 0:01:12.640 --> 0:01:16.160 previously worked for go Wala, which was a location based 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:20.160 social network that got gobbled up by Facebook. And March 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:24.080 two more employees joined the company. They were Ryan Gamba, 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:27.720 a developer who had founded a business called app That, 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:32.280 and Bailey Richardson, a Stanford graduate and community manager who 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:36.000 had previously worked for you Gallery. I mentioned these hires 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:39.240 only to point out that Instagram at this phase was 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:44.960 still a very small company, despite having a massive installed base. 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:48.520 So you had millions of people using the app, but 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:52.760 less than a dozen people actually working for the company, 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:56.160 and that base got larger in early April of twelve, 0:01:56.480 --> 0:02:00.640 when Instagram finally launched on Android, you needed a device 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.880 that was capable of running at least Android two point two, 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:06.760 also known as Froyo. It taken about a year and 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.120 a half to bring the app over to Google's mobile 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:14.960 operating system, and clearly Android users were eager for that app. 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:18.280 More than a million people downloaded the app in the 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:23.880 first twenty four hours. Instagram would hit fifty million active 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:27.680 users in early April, which was a huge jump since 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:31.560 it had only hit ten million the previous September. It's 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:35.720 meteoric rise helped the company hold a successful funding round, 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:40.760 raising fifty million dollars in investments in the process, which 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:43.840 means that's a dollar per active user, which is pretty 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:47.120 darn good, and it put the valuation of the company 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:51.919 at about five hundred million dollars. Investors included Sequoya Capital, 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:58.080 Thrive Capital, Benchmark, and Graylock. And then almost immediately after 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:02.600 that happened came the big news. Facebook had come knocking 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:06.280 and System answered the door. The news broke that Facebook 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:12.000 would acquire Instagram for the princely sum of one billion 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:16.480 dollars in a combination cash and stock deal. The timing 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:19.679 of both the funding round and the acquisition announcement meant 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:22.280 that it was very likely Instagram was in talks with 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:25.760 both groups at the same time. So what the heck 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:29.720 was going on here? Well, chances are Sistrom and company. 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:33.919 We're using the investment round as two things, a negotiation 0:03:34.000 --> 0:03:37.600 tactic and a safety net. The fact that investors were 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:42.080 rushing to put more money into Instagram heightened the company's value, 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:45.440 which gave Instagram a better position when Facebook was looking 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:49.120 to acquire the company. Instagram could point at its recent 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:52.520 funding round as evidence of the company's worth and thus 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:56.280 demand a higher acquisition price, and the companies that had 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.960 just invested stood to see a return on those investment. 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:04.000 It's practically overnight if you and poured fifty million dollars 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:06.480 into a company and then that company sold for a 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:09.840 billion dollars, you would stand to receive a really tidy 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:13.840 profit on your investment. And worst case scenario, if the 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:16.640 deal broke down and Facebook walked away, you still have 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:20.440 fifty million dollars of investment money to work with. At 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:23.960 the time of its acquisition, Kevin's Systram owned about forty 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:28.039 percent of the company, Mike Kreeger owned about ten percent, 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:31.599 and the rest was owned by their various investors. The 0:04:31.760 --> 0:04:36.640 one billion dollar deal made them both multimillionaires overnight, at 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:40.360 least on paper, they were multimillionaires, with Systram being worth 0:04:40.400 --> 0:04:44.600 about four million dollars, and there were just thirteen employees 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.120 at Instagram at the time of the acquisition, and that 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:52.920 includes the two founders, So it was a phenomenal deal. However, 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:55.799 that would not stop people from later saying Instagram made 0:04:55.839 --> 0:04:59.760 the move too quickly. Now, before I get into that analysis, 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:04.320 win did Facebook one Instagram in the first place? Well, 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:07.680 for one thing, Facebook was heading toward its own initial 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:10.920 public offering or i p O. That's when a company 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:15.160 switches from being a privately held corporation into a publicly 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.240 traded one where you can end up trading stocks on 0:05:18.279 --> 0:05:21.080 the market. And if an i p O goes well, 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:25.360 it earns a company a whole lot of cash, So 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:28.400 they become flush with cash they can suddenly do lots 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.640 of stuff with it, which typically can be used for 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:36.159 things like building out resources or acquiring other companies. But 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:39.480 Facebook had already found itself in a great position as 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:43.080 far as cash goes. Forbes estimated that due to private 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:46.160 share sales to Golden and Sacks, which happened in advance 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:49.400 of the i p O, Facebook had about four billion 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:54.080 dollars burning a hole in its enormous corporate wallet. Making 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:57.080 a move like buying another company before Facebook had its 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:00.159 own i p O was a pretty baller move, I guess. 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:04.200 For another thing, Facebook really wanted to get at Instagram's 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:08.240 reach with mobile users. Facebook was doing well on desktops 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:11.080 and laptops, but hatt't managed to be as successful in 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:14.480 the mobile world, and other entities like Google and Twitter 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:19.000 were eyeing Instagram to which created a sense of urgency 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:21.479 and Facebook needed to find ways to make sure it 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:26.719 would remain relevant as demographics and technology changed. Instagram has 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.920 always skewed younger with its demographics than other social platforms. 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:34.120 A Facebook as a platform started to age out it 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.400 needed the next big thing to help keep everything moving forward. 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:42.000 So why did some analysts later say Instagram made a 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:46.200 big mistake selling to Facebook in April In two thousand 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:49.920 and fourteen, Business Insider ran a piece about this very question. 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:55.200 By that time, Instagram boasted two hundred million users that 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.480 put it on parallel with Twitter, which had already held 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:01.760 its own I p O and raised two billion dollars 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:05.280 in the process, reaching a valuation of more than twenty 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:09.159 billion dollars. And then Facebook went on to purchase the 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:14.440 messaging service WhatsApp, which was five hundred million users large, 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:17.240 and that's about two and a half times the size 0:07:17.240 --> 0:07:22.280 of Instagram. But Facebook spent nineteen billion dollars on it 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:24.600 in the process, so way more than two and a 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:27.320 half times the amount it's it's spent on Instagram. So 0:07:27.400 --> 0:07:30.360 some analysts have said that Instagram could have held out 0:07:30.360 --> 0:07:33.480 a little longer, continued working under the investment money it 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.520 had raised in that fifty million dollar funding round, and 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:40.360 watched as its price tag ticked higher and higher. Systrom, 0:07:40.360 --> 0:07:43.360 for his part, says that it is impossible to see 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:47.960 the future and that playing this game in hindsight is pointless. Rather, 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:50.960 he said, the acquisition enabled his team to work on 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:53.840 the project that they loved with an enormous amount of support, 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:57.240 and without that support, they may never hit that two 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:00.680 hundred million user mark, So it could have just been 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:05.200 a moot point, a moot question. When the acquisition became 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:09.840 public knowledge, Systrom and Zuckerberg both reassured people that Instagram 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:13.120 would continue as its own entity and not be swallowed 0:08:13.160 --> 0:08:17.640 up into Facebook, incorporated into Facebook's features, and then later disappear, 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:21.680 And so far that has been the case. While Instagram 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:26.120 employees celebrate their windfall, the company continued to roll out features, 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:30.520 build a larger audience, and generally stay on target until 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:35.760 late when a corporate decision would backfire hard on Instagram 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:39.600 and cause the company to backpedal a bit. So what happened, Well, 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:41.880 it all had to do with those pesky terms of 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:44.839 service that we all agree to but almost none of 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:48.320 us ever bother to actually read. I'll explain more in 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:52.040 just a moment, but first let's take a quick break 0:08:52.360 --> 0:09:04.680 to thank our sponsor. In December, Instagram updated its terms 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:07.599 of service with the intent for the new policies to 0:09:07.679 --> 0:09:13.320 take effects starting January. Among those updates was a sentence 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:16.520 that caused a bit of a ruckus, and the sentence 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:20.839 read quote, you agree that a business may pay Instagram 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:24.400 to display your photos in connection with paid or sponsored 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:28.880 content or promotions without any compensation to you end quote, 0:09:29.640 --> 0:09:32.080 not first blush. That seems to say that if you 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:35.280 agree to use Instagram, any or all of your photos 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:38.360 could be featured in commercials for products you never use 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:42.240 or you've never heard of, or you oppose morally. And 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.920 what's more, you would never see a dime in compensation, 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:49.840 whether you liked the product or not. The advertisers would 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:53.640 get the wealth of countless photographs uploaded to Instagram by 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:58.040 millions of users without having to pay anyone other than 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:02.960 Instagram for that privilege. Outrage followed, But what was really 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:05.880 going on? Well, as it turns out, the terms of 0:10:05.960 --> 0:10:11.720 service were actually restricting what Instagram could do. Earlier language 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:15.599 was more vague and permissive. But we need to understand 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:19.479 a few truths. One of those truths is that companies 0:10:19.520 --> 0:10:23.360 that display user content require a lot of protection to 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:27.240 make sure they can't be held liable if someone says, hey, 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:30.240 I didn't want you to share that. The terms of 0:10:30.280 --> 0:10:34.600 service give broad licenses to such companies. To display images, 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:39.360 because that's what the companies do. Instagram displays the photos 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:43.040 you upload and they store them as well, So in 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:46.199 order for that to happen, Instagram has to have permission 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:49.600 from you to do that because the photos don't belong 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:55.360 to Instagram. Those are your photos. Presumably you're presumably uploading 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:57.760 your own and not someone else's work, and so to 0:10:57.800 --> 0:11:01.040 be able to display those images and to store them 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:06.439 on servers, Instagram requires users permission to do so. Instagram 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:09.959 can't sell your photos to anyone else because the service 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:14.120 doesn't own your photos. I can't sell something that doesn't 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:17.920 belong to me, at least not legally. Nor can Instagram 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:20.920 change your photos beyond the ways you've indicated. So, in 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:24.240 other words, you can use Instagram's tools to change your photos. 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:26.600 But once you do that and you've settled on what 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.800 the photo needs to look like, Instagram doesn't have permission 0:11:29.800 --> 0:11:32.240 to change it. Again, it doesn't have a license to 0:11:32.280 --> 0:11:35.920 create derivative works based off of the images you upload. 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:39.679 There are similar terms of service elsewhere online, such as 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:43.120 with Google Drive. Without those terms, someone might try to 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:46.280 bring a case against a company saying, hey, I only 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:49.560 authorize this company to show me my material on this 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:53.520 particular device, nothing more. So some of this is in 0:11:53.600 --> 0:11:56.800 the interest of self protection, but that didn't mean that 0:11:56.880 --> 0:12:00.880 Instagram didn't have some wording that concerned poll For example, 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:05.319 there was this passage quote to help us deliver interesting, 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:09.520 paid or sponsored content or promotions. You agree that a 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:13.480 business or other entity may pay us to display your 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:18.520 user name, likeness, photos, along with any associated meta data, 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:22.360 and or actions you take in connection with paid or 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:27.760 sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you. End quote. 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:31.480 But the wording stated that Instagram could be paid to 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:36.840 allow advertisers to display your content in connection with advertising. Now, 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:40.000 as The Verge pointed out in an insightful article on 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.520 the subject back in two thousand twelve, this actually created 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:47.960 limitations for Instagram and advertisers. A sponsor would not be 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:51.720 allowed to alter a photo in any way. It would 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:54.920 be able to display a photo in connection with advertising, 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:58.600 but couldn't turn the photo itself into an ad. So 0:12:58.640 --> 0:13:00.720 if you took a picture of a perfect day on 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:03.920 a seashore, a nearby resort would not be allowed to 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:07.560 display that photo with overlaid text all about the resort. 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:11.000 The Verge piece goes on to point out that Facebook 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:14.000 already did something akin to this. If you were to 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:17.320 like a page on Facebook that was run by a 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:21.280 brand that like could show up in friends news feeds 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:24.880 as a sponsored post. So if I liked the podcast 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:28.280 page for the soundtrack show, which I recently did do 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:32.200 the podcast, could pay Facebook to promote that action across 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:35.800 my friends news feeds, and they would see Jonathan liked 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:39.480 this page, and that spreads the word and perhaps even 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:44.360 inspires my friends to also like that page. The Verge 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:47.920 argued that Instagram didn't make a mistake with the way 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:51.480 it formulated its terms of service, but rather made a 0:13:51.559 --> 0:13:55.360 huge mistake by not explaining those terms clearly in advance 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:59.560 so that people wouldn't have a freak count. Instead, users 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:03.320 got the opression that all their pictures of vacations, pets, 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:06.760 and let's face it, food were to become the ads 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:09.880 of tomorrow, and while the users were the ones generating 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:12.960 all the content, they wouldn't get paid for it. The 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:17.760 reaction was, to put it, lightly negative. Systrom issued a 0:14:17.840 --> 0:14:22.520 statement apologizing for the communication and the misunderstanding, but at 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:25.400 that point the outrage was spiraling out of control, and 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:29.440 so Instagram chose to roll back. The language. Just a 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:32.200 little bit later, in December of two thousand twelve, still 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:35.400 a month before the policies were even supposed to take effect, 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:38.800 the terms of service essentially reverted back to what they 0:14:38.840 --> 0:14:42.640 were when Instagram first launched, back in which, as the 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:45.560 Verge piece pointed out, actually meant that there were fewer 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:49.480 protections in place for users, so it ironically got worse, 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:53.560 not better. Another piece, also in The Verge, went so 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:55.960 far as to suggest that the whole debacle would feed 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:59.840 into a culture of deceit among companies, that instagrams ex 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.760 arians would encourage other companies to develop terms of service 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:06.640 that would be difficult to suss out. They wouldn't be 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:10.480 written in plain language in order that people didn't get 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:12.920 bent out of shape from the outset, And as the 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:16.320 piece pointed out, Instagram's updated policy put their strategy in 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:19.680 plain language. It made it easier to understand, and that's 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:22.880 what set people off. When the terms were more obtuse. 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:25.200 No one got upset because no one took the effort 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:27.400 to understand what the heck the terms meant in the 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:30.160 first place. But once you spell it out, everyone got 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:33.520 up in arms about it, even though nothing had really changed. 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:37.920 That dramatically. Whether Instagram's experience has had an overall negative 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:41.760 impact on the way companies create their terms of services 0:15:41.800 --> 0:15:45.280 difficult to say, but Instagram did have its first real 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:50.200 blush with user blowback, and at first some analysts claimed 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:52.800 the move had a real impact on user behavior. There 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:55.960 was a company called app Data, which measured Instagram usage 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:59.280 through users who had linked their Instagram accounts to their 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:02.720 Facebook profile. Else They reported that the app had seen 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:06.920 a twenty decline and daily activity over the week that 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:10.960 followed the policy announcements and rollback, but a later statement 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:13.800 from app Data cleared things up. According to a representative, 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:17.360 the report was based on inaccurate information and was far 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:19.560 more likely to be connected to the fact that the 0:16:19.640 --> 0:16:23.120 week in question included Christmas and people were just not 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:26.560 posting as much that day because they were enjoying a holiday, 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:29.760 and that there probably wasn't any direct connection to the 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:33.600 policy controversy. Now, while the policy issue was a blip 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:37.280 in the radar, Instagram was able to get back on track. 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:42.440 By February of the service boasted one hundred million monthly 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:45.480 active users, and while some were starting to whisper that 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:49.080 Systram had sold too quickly. System continue to argue that 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:51.840 without the support of Facebook, the service wouldn't have grown 0:16:51.880 --> 0:16:54.880 that quickly. To start with, Now, I've got a little 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:57.600 bit more to say about where Instagram is today and 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:00.000 how it got there, But first let's take another quick 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:11.040 break to thank our sponsor. In two thousand thirteen, Instagram 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:15.000 introduced a few new features. One was photo tagging. Now 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:17.359 people could tag one another in photos, and it made 0:17:17.400 --> 0:17:19.720 it much easier to find photos of yourself with the 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:23.680 inclusion of a photos of you tab. That tab displayed 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:26.119 all the pictures of a user that other people had 0:17:26.200 --> 0:17:29.760 uploaded and tagged. Pretty useful when you go to a 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:31.639 lot of events and parties with friends and then you 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:34.639 want to see how many pictures of you looking like 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:37.440 an idiot there are out there. I might be projecting 0:17:37.560 --> 0:17:40.600 a little bit. I'm not suggesting that you look like 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:44.680 an idiot at parties. I'm admitting that I always do 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:49.960 look like an idiot at parties. In June, Instagram introduced 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:53.040 video sharing. This seemed to be a response to another 0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.640 popular product that had launched the year before. This one 0:17:56.720 --> 0:17:59.960 was called vine. Vine would allow users to create video 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:03.880 loops that lasted just six seconds and then upload those 0:18:03.920 --> 0:18:07.640 clips to sites like Twitter, which bought Vine just before 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:11.240 it launched officially. The short form challenged users to find 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:15.520 creative ways to leverage that format. Instagram's approach was similar, 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:18.440 only it was nearly three times longer, with clips lasting 0:18:18.480 --> 0:18:22.040 up to fifteen seconds. Instagram also introduced more than a 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:25.879 dozen special filters specifically designed to work with video. This 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:29.760 marked the first really big change to Instagram's features since 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:32.959 it launched, though the team behind Instagram had been working 0:18:33.080 --> 0:18:37.080 the whole time to improve services speed and reliability, so 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:39.359 it wasn't like they were shirking their duty. They just 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:42.880 hadn't really added any big features. It also meant some 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:46.640 people began to worry that Instagram could become Facebook's prototype 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:50.800 ground for features that Facebook wanted to explore but couldn't 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:55.000 easily implement into the Facebook experience directly. Instead, you just 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:58.919 add more stuff to Instagram. Ironically, this would mean pushing 0:18:58.920 --> 0:19:02.840 Instagram closer to its predecessor, the app known as Bourbon 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:06.480 bu r b N. Also, Facebook had really wanted to 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:08.680 buy Vine that didn't work out for them, This would 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:11.840 become an ongoing thing for Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg would want 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:14.800 to go out and acquire a company, he would get 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:18.600 a negative reply, and then he would tell Instagram, hey, 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:21.320 can you make a tool that essentially does this thing 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:25.160 that we wanted to buy and they'd say okay. In October, 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:31.200 Instagram encountered another controversy. This one was one that continued 0:19:31.240 --> 0:19:34.880 for a while. A photographer and model named Petra Collins 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:37.919 posted a photo of herself in a bikini, and in 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:41.320 the photo, some of Collins's pubic hair was actually visible 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:45.320 beneath her bikini bottom. Instagram ended up deleting her account, 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.439 which led to Collins protesting the move, claiming her photo 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:52.960 didn't violate any of Instagram's stated terms and conditions, and 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:56.760 that led to a wider discussion about Instagram's policies and 0:19:56.800 --> 0:20:00.760 the seemingly inconsistent way the company enforced them. You could 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:05.000 argue that some photos, while not technically showing any nudity whatsoever, 0:20:05.320 --> 0:20:08.840 we're incredibly suggestive or sexual in nature, and therefore we're 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:13.720 a quote unquote fine by Instagram standards. Other photos that 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:17.120 might include a little nudity, but we're not overtly sexual 0:20:17.280 --> 0:20:21.320 or sensual, might end up being violations of Instagram's policies. 0:20:21.960 --> 0:20:26.200 And there were other issues about a disparity between photos 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:30.640 of men and women, and this all started to spiral 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:34.639 into a big debate online that continues to this day. 0:20:35.119 --> 0:20:37.680 It's been an ongoing issue for Instagram. There were similar 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:42.399 incidents that happened in and there's still arguments about whether 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:46.560 or not the policies make sense, whether they are enforced equitably, 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:49.919 and whether it's a different story for men than it 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:53.040 is for women. Yet another controversy popped up in November, 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:56.680 which must have been a pretty rough year to work 0:20:56.720 --> 0:21:01.480 in pr and Instagram. A b b See investigative report 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:05.800 revealed that people were selling illegal drugs using Instagram to 0:21:05.920 --> 0:21:10.560 advertise their products, typically with a message that would send 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:14.560 people to the WhatsApp messenger in order to complete the transaction. 0:21:15.000 --> 0:21:18.600 Instagram responded by cracking down no pun intended on the 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:21.920 various hashtags being used by people to sell drugs over 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:27.080 the service. Also in two thousand thirteen, Instagram introduced sponsored posts, 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:30.960 which would insert advertisements within the feeds of users as 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:34.040 a way to monetize the service, and the company also 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:38.159 introduced a feature called direct in which users could choose 0:21:38.200 --> 0:21:41.640 to send photos to specific people as a private message, 0:21:41.760 --> 0:21:44.960 rather than sharing it in their public feed. This last 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:47.640 feature seemed to be a response to apps like Snapchat, 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:51.080 which was growing in popularity at that time. Two thousand 0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:54.359 thirteen was also the year Instagram finally came to the 0:21:54.400 --> 0:21:58.960 Windows phone platform. Nakia had been pressuring Instagram for a 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:02.640 version of its app to run on Windows Mobile operating system. 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:05.959 Nakia's handset division was in the process of being acquired 0:22:06.000 --> 0:22:08.159 by Microsoft by the time the app was on the 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:12.439 verge of launching. The app came out in November, and 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:17.680 immediately there were problems. For example, in the beta build, 0:22:17.920 --> 0:22:21.920 you could not take photos directly from the app. Instead, 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:26.159 you would take photos with your phones camera app, then 0:22:26.200 --> 0:22:30.960 you would import the photos from your film role into Instagram. Worse, 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:35.200 the original announcement mentioned video support, but the Windows Mobile 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:38.879 version of Instagram had no such capability. In fact, it 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:42.440 would take nearly two and a half years before Instagram 0:22:42.560 --> 0:22:46.280 on Windows ten Mobile could support video. There have been 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:50.800 some standalone apps that interoperate with Instagram that officially come 0:22:50.960 --> 0:22:54.840 from Instagram the company. In fourteen, the company launched a 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:58.040 messaging app called Bolt, in which users could send an 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:02.040 image to other users that disappears after it's been viewed, 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:06.919 similar to snapchats design. Later, the company also released hyper Laps, 0:23:07.080 --> 0:23:10.400 a time lapse video app. In two thousand and fifteen, 0:23:10.440 --> 0:23:15.080 Instagram launched a companion app called Boomerang. Boomerang allows users 0:23:15.119 --> 0:23:17.919 to take a burst of five photos within the span 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:20.680 of a second. The photos are then shown in sequence 0:23:20.760 --> 0:23:23.320 as if they are five frames of a video. Then 0:23:23.800 --> 0:23:26.280 the sequence reverses back to the beginning and so on 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:29.520 in a never ending loop, and it can be funny 0:23:29.640 --> 0:23:34.560 or irritating, all depending on the execution. In s, Instagram 0:23:34.600 --> 0:23:38.400 introduced Stories, which lets you create a series of photos 0:23:38.400 --> 0:23:41.880 and videos, complete with layers and effects, and string them 0:23:41.880 --> 0:23:45.800 together to form into a narrative. The story expires after 0:23:45.840 --> 0:23:48.560 twenty four hours it disappears from feeds at that point. 0:23:49.160 --> 0:23:53.040 In April, Instagram changed up its algorithm in a way 0:23:53.040 --> 0:23:58.000 that still drives me crazy, kind of the way Facebook's 0:23:58.040 --> 0:24:00.919 algorithm drives me crazy. And maybe this is just me. 0:24:01.440 --> 0:24:03.320 I know it's not just me, because there's so many 0:24:03.400 --> 0:24:06.320 articles about it, but maybe it doesn't bother you. But 0:24:06.400 --> 0:24:10.119 the app changed from listing entries in reverse chronological order. 0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:12.840 That would be where you have the most recent posts 0:24:12.840 --> 0:24:15.359 at the top of your feed and older posts are 0:24:15.400 --> 0:24:18.720 following behind, so you just scroll down and you're seeing 0:24:18.720 --> 0:24:21.840 the older posts. Instead, they use a new algorithm in 0:24:21.960 --> 0:24:23.760 order to show the posts in a way that was 0:24:23.800 --> 0:24:27.520 supposed to be the kind that would show you more 0:24:27.520 --> 0:24:29.840 of the type of stuff you really liked at the top. 0:24:30.400 --> 0:24:33.719 Presumably the algorithm would take into account the people and 0:24:33.800 --> 0:24:36.960 hashtags of photos that you had hit like on in 0:24:37.000 --> 0:24:39.760 the past and use that to determine what would rise 0:24:39.760 --> 0:24:41.960 to the top of your feed, so that you would 0:24:41.960 --> 0:24:44.880 not miss out on those things, which I guess makes 0:24:44.920 --> 0:24:47.399 some sort of sense, except it really cuts down on 0:24:47.480 --> 0:24:51.280 discover ability. I much prefer the chronological approach, which I 0:24:51.320 --> 0:24:54.280 think works better as long as you're not following thousands 0:24:54.280 --> 0:24:56.719 of accounts. If you are following thousands of accounts, then 0:24:56.720 --> 0:24:58.600