Instagram: Nein, wir wollen Eure Fotos nicht verkaufen

Instagram-CEO Kevin Systrom reagiert im Blog auf das Medienecho. Thank you, and we’re listening – Instagram Blog:

Advertising on Instagram From the start, Instagram was created to become a business. Advertising is one of many ways that Instagram can become a self-sustaining business, but not the only one. Our intention in updating the terms was to communicate that we’d like to experiment with innovative advertising that feels appropriate on Instagram. Instead it was interpreted by many that we were going to sell your photos to others without any compensation. This is not true and it is our mistake that this language is confusing. To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos. We are working on updated language in the terms to make sure this is clear.

To provide context, we envision a future where both users and brands alike may promote their photos & accounts to increase engagement and to build a more meaningful following. Let’s say a business wanted to promote their account to gain more followers and Instagram was able to feature them in some way. In order to help make a more relevant and useful promotion, it would be helpful to see which of the people you follow also follow this business. In this way, some of the data you produce — like the actions you take (eg, following the account) and your profile photo — might show up if you are following this business.

The language we proposed also raised question about whether your photos can be part of an advertisement. We do not have plans for anything like this and because of that we’re going to remove the language that raised the question. Our main goal is to avoid things like advertising banners you see in other apps that would hurt the Instagram user experience. Instead, we want to create meaningful ways to help you discover new and interesting accounts and content while building a self-sustaining business at the same time.

Zwischen den Zeilen lese ich als eine mögliche Richtung der Werbung auf  Instagram heraus, kontextuelle Werbung anzuzeigen anhand zum Beispiel der Orte an denen Fotos gemacht wurden oder was fotografiert wurde. Auch Promoted Accounts klingen wie ein No-Brainer. Ergibt alles Sinn und ist konsistent mit der Art und Weise der Communitybasis. (Ob man das dann im einzelnen als User mag, ist eine andere Frage.)

Völlig überraschend will Instagram also doch nicht in das Fotoagentur-Geschäft einsteigen. In den Printausgaben der Tageszeitungen vom 19.12. werden viele Artikel zu Instagram erscheinen; allein im Berliner Tagesspiegel stehen drei, mit einem auf der Titelseite. Wenn wir die Antwort darauf nicht bereits wüssten, könnten wir uns nun fragen, wie viele Folgeartikel mit Richtigstellungen online und im Print zu diesem Thema erscheinen werden.