No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram

by Sarah Frier

Scooter Braun, Bieber’s manager, had seen this movie before. All the celebrities, Bieber the most internet-famous among them, had been posting their content on social media sites and getting nothing in return. Braun had discovered Bieber in 2006 when he was barely a teenager, singing on YouTube, but he hadn’t been as famous during the early rise of Facebook and Twitter. Maybe, Braun thought, he could get something out of Instagram. The star music industry negotiator called Systrom while the latter was in a station wagon full of friends, passing by Davis, California, on the way to Lake Tahoe. “Kevin, I’ve got Justin on the line,” he said. The two of them made a pitch: let Bieber invest, or pay him for his content. Or else he’ll stop using Instagram. Systrom had already decided that Instagram wouldn’t be paying anyone for their content, since he wanted everyone to be spending time on Instagram because it was fun and useful, not for commercial reasons. He said no to paying Bieber or taking his investment. Bieber followed through on Braun’s threat. But his on-and-off girlfriend, the Disney actress and singer Selena Gomez, loved to use Instagram, and their relationship was all the gossip blogs wanted to write about. Soon Bieber was back on the app, continuing to overload Instagram’s infrastructure, to the point where the company had to devote half a server just to his account’s activity.