The Daily - Should Facebook Be Broken Up?

This episode contains strong language. When the photo-sharing app Instagram started to grow in popularity in the 2010s, the chief executive of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, had two options: build something comparable or buy it out. He opted for the latter. The subsequent $1 billion deal is central to a case being brought against Facebook by the federal government and 48 attorneys general. They want to see the social network broken up. Will they succeed? On today’s episode, we look at one of the biggest cases to hit Silicon Valley in decades. Guest: Mike Isaac, a technology correspondent for The New York Times. For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here. Background reading: Regulators have accused Facebook of buying up rising rivals to cement its dominance over social media.The cases against Facebook are far from a slam dunk — the standards of proof are formidable. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

Duration: 31m
Broadcast on: 17 Dec 2020
Audio Format: other

This episode contains strong language.

When the photo-sharing app Instagram started to grow in popularity in the 2010s, the chief executive of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, had two options: build something comparable or buy it out. He opted for the latter.

The subsequent $1 billion deal is central to a case being brought against Facebook by the federal government and 48 attorneys general. They want to see the social network broken up.

Will they succeed? On today’s episode, we look at one of the biggest cases to hit Silicon Valley in decades.

Guest: Mike Isaac, a technology correspondent for The New York Times.

For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, subscribe to our newsletter. You can read the latest edition here.

Background reading:

Regulators have accused Facebook of buying up rising rivals to cement its dominance over social media.
The cases against Facebook are far from a slam dunk — the standards of proof are formidable.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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this podcast is supported by TikTok. Sometimes the most interesting discoveries are the ones you weren't looking for. That happens every day on TikTok. A science experiment can spark a whole new interest. A recipe you stumble upon can become a meal you make for the people you love, and a restaurant you've never heard of might become your new favorite spot. That's the thing about TikTok. Follow your curiosity and see where it leads. Your next discovery is waiting on TikTok. From the New York Times, I'm Michael Bovarro. This is The Daily. The federal government and 48 attorneys general are seeking to break up Facebook, saying that it's become an unlawful monopoly that is hurting consumers. Today, my colleague, Mike Isaac, takes us inside one of the deals at the center of that claim. It's Thursday, December 17th. Mike, where does the story of Facebook and Instagram begin? I think you have to go back to 2010, which, you know, for us now seems like a bygone era of the internet, basically. But if you can remember, this was back when we were all using Facebook, you know, on our desktop computers. It was more a relic of I sit down and look in my desktop, maybe not even a laptop, and I post photos or status updates to my Facebook there. So very different era, very different Facebook. For 2010, we're going to take the biggest leap since the original iPhone. Along that time, this is when really the rise of the smartphone started becoming a thing for people. We're introducing iPhone 4. This is really hot. It was just sort of a real inflection moment on how people use their computers, and rather than sitting down in front of a desk, it was in our pockets, basically.

So, around this time, two Stanford undergrads, Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom decided to start a company together. At the time, it was called Bourbon after Kevin's love of brown alcoholic liquids, I think. And it was basically a social check-in app. You say, "Hi, this is where I am. I'm at the store," or whatever. And then almost immediately, you know, it doesn't catch on. Competitors like Four Square seems to be doing much better. So they're trying to figure out what to do, what the next steps are. And they essentially notice everyone really likes the ability to post photos, to attach a photo to their check-ins. And, you know, suddenly, you know, Kevin gets the spread idea. It's like, what if we, instead of focusing on the check-in, we focus on letting people post photos from their phones. They do a hard pivot, and Bourbon becomes what we now know as Instagram. I'm not sure how many of you have heard of Instagram, but I love it. Instagram allows users to take photos with a vintage look and instantly share them. The real thing that resonated with folks is the filter. It makes your photos better. These filters make your photos better with a free app that allows you to take any picture and make it a memory. So it looks like an old black and white, or even a Polaroid. Any dude on the street can take a photo and suddenly become Ansel Adams after use or tweak the visuals a little bit. Right. The black and white filter, man. Everybody was capable of epic photography. That's right. It was blowing up in 2011. At the time, I remember going to, you know, Silicon Valley, little startup parties and mixers. And it was, it was the thing everyone was showing to each other on their phones. This was kind of how app discovery happened when it was just like, Oh, what are you using? Oh, this is what I got. And it was always Instagram. Everyone with an iPhone had Instagram, basically. So Mike, as this is happening, what does Facebook, at this point, the biggest social networking company in the United States, what does it make of Instagram? Because as you said, posting photos, sharing photos, that's happening on Facebook, but probably not at the same level as it's happening on Instagram. Yeah. So down in Silicon Valley, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founder and CEO is just watching Instagram blow up. I think he's always kept an eye on competition, but he's had a real, real eye for what the next big thing is and how people share things. And I think almost immediately, he saw how quickly, how popular posting photos to Instagram was. And sort of intuitively knew

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