YOU TUBE’S VIEW MASTER YouTube is the ultimate destination for kids on the . How plans to keep them hooked By Belinda Luscombe

The CEO of YouTube cannot stand up. She keeps falling to the mat like a cat off a ceiling fan. Or a guy cannonballing into what turns out to be solid ice. Her helmet is awry. Her trousers have slipped to plumber level. A bunch of YouTube employees are watching their boss, Susan Wojcicki, 47, take on the “Melt- down,” which is like a large blow-up kiddie pool with a big foam propeller rotating in the middle that people are supposed to duck or leap over. Wojcicki has mastered the duck but takes a pummeling when she tries the leap. The Meltdown, along with a bouncy castle, a slushy machine, some jumbo-size board games, oceans of red candy and a DJ, has been installed in the back of YouTube’s blocky California offices so the company can celebrate 10 years of helping people make a spectacle of themselves, which Wojcicki would be doing right , except nobody cares. This is a bit of a nerd crowd; if she were to fail on the giant chess set installed in the office foyer, now that would be embarrassing. Wojcicki (Wo-jiss-ki) is at the helm of YouTube at a time

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TIME LEFT PAGE STORY SLUGS: SEQUENCE: DESIGNER: GUIDE#: REMARKS: ISSUE DATE: SECTION: Wojcicki at YouTube’s San Bruno, Calif., offices, where the rooms are named after Internet memes

PHOTOGRAPH BY IAN ALLEN FOR TIME 71

TIME RIGHT PAGE STORY SLUGS: SEQUENCE: DESIGNER: GUIDE#: REMARKS: ISSUE DATE: SECTION: when almost every female executive to crotch-injury videos. But they can also of a big technology company is a cause see protests from Tahrir Square or hear ­célèbre, often for making significant con- directly from ISIS on their phones. Con- tributions to the national discussions According to a sider this: almost everybody now agrees around feminism and work-life balance. that police sometimes use unwarranted People far outside Silicon Valley know, for 2014 survey, 66% violence against African Americans. Two instance, how much (or little) maternity of kids visit years ago that wasn’t true. Online video— leave Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer took in and specifically YouTube—did that. 2012 to have her first baby. And many a YouTube daily, One of the ways Wojcicki (rhymes nontechie’s shelf holds a signed copy of including 72% of with “the whiskey,” if you’re still having Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s 2013 trouble) has avoided public scrutiny is by best seller Lean In, a call for women to do 6-to-8-year-olds being deeply unflashy. She’s not charis- what it takes to become business leaders. matic, like Sandberg, or forceful, like IBM But the fanfare around Wojcicki is chief Ginni Rometty. Her defining quality more muted. When she took over You- It has more American viewers ages 18 to appears to be pragmatism. She eschews Tube in February 2014, the New York 49 just on mobile than any cable network. the trappings commonly associated with Times ran a photo of her sister Anne Revenue increased by an estimated $1 bil- power, wearing light makeup and modest by accident. “They actually had a pic- lion last year. ( is coy about prof- heels, driving sensible cars (an SUV and a ture of both of us, and they cut me out,” its.) The site is available in 61 languages. minivan) and living not far from her par- says Wojcicki, smiling. “I will say Anne It has a million advertisers. ents’ home in Stanford, Calif. Her office thought it was great.” And more than ever, YouTube is the is large but unglamorous. Her answers to This is all the more unlikely because ultimate destination for kids logging on questions are direct. of her colorful pedigree: Google, which to the Internet. It pretty much owns kids’ That few people can name the woman bought YouTube for $1.65 billion nine eyeballs at this point. One of its core de- running arguably the most important years ago, was started in Wojcicki’s ga- mographics is 8 to 17 years old. According new-media business in the world may be rage. She was its 16th employee. She has to a 2014 survey of 6,661 kids and their an anomaly or by design. Either way, it’s five kids with her husband (also a Google parents by youth researchers Smarty worth spending time with her because employee). Her dad escaped at the Pants, 66% of children ages 6 to 12 visit we’re all subject to the increasing impact age of 11 by hiding in a ship’s coal bin. Her YouTube daily, including 72% of 6-to-8- of her content. And the pressure of how mom is close personal friends with James year-olds. When Variety asked a bunch to direct that power is only going to grow Franco. Her sister is recently divorced of teens to choose their favorite stars in the coming year. from Google co-founder , among 20 names, the top five were all On Aug. 10, Google announced it was meaning Wojcicki more or less works for from YouTube. renaming itself Alphabet and creating her ex–brother-in-law. That’s just the data. Less quantifiable a conglomerate of subsidiaries to pur- Then there’s the hydra she’s in charge is the way YouTube’s free, searchable, sue wide-ranging ventures from delivery of. YouTube is now the world’s third mobile, all-you-can-see video buffet has drones to self-driving cars. That means most popular online destination. Of the changed the way we navigate the Internet YouTube, which will remain a part of a YOUTUBE (7) 3.2 billion people who have Internet ac- and thus understand what’s happening. subsidiary of Alphabet called Google, will cess, more than 1 billion watch YouTube. Yes, people now have unfettered access become even more vital to the search gi-

The YouTube culture economy

In just a decade YouTube has become a launching PEWDIEPIE JUSTIN BIEBER AND ILANA GLAZER pad for careers in new The most followed YouTube The “All That Matters” singer The comedy duo posted two and mainstream media personality posts videos of has YouTube to thank for his dozen episodes of their series alike. Here’s a closer look himself playing games and meteoric rise: his manager on YouTube starting at the channels and stars making commentary; last first discovered his amateur in 2010; now it’s a program on launched by the site year he took home a reported singing on the platform and . $7 million in ad revenue. quickly signed him. Subscribers: 50,000 Subscribers: 38.9 million Subscribers: 12 million

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TIME LEFT PAGE STORY SLUGS: SEQUENCE: DESIGNER: GUIDE#: REMARKS: ISSUE DATE: SECTION: ant’s bottom line. That will put Wojcicki’s science class until college. In high school, The most jealous kid you ever met.” Di- pragmatism to the test. she considered herself bad at math. rectness seems to run in the family. Her parents were both educators: The only tiny rebellious act the el- When Wojcicki and her two sisters taught physics at - dest Wojcicki daughter ever committed, were growing up on the Stanford Uni- ford, and his wife Esther is a highly re- according to Woj, was to move to India versity campus, they lived next to the garded high school teacher in the Bay after finishing Harvard, to be a photog- Dantzigs. created the Area, where she’s known as Woj. Woj is rapher, covering the Gulf War–inspired simplex method, an algorithm used for not a woman to leave people guessing anti-American protests there. That was linear programming, considered one of about her opinions. Wojcicki remembers, followed by an economics degree and the top 10 algorithms of the last century. with a fond cringe, her mother’s loud and colorful part-time jobs for firms as varied (The scene in Good Will Hunting in which official complaints about the quality of as garbage companies and tech-­finance Matt Damon’s character solves a vexing education at her school, which eventu- startups. She decided she preferred the math equation on the board is based on ally led to Woj’s creating a well-regarded startups. Her friends Sergey Brin and an incident in his life.) Dantzig also grew journalism program. She has co-written a asked her to join Google, as lemons. At a young age, the Wojcicki book about it (with a foreword by Franco) marketing manager, when it still had no sisters used to pick the fruit and sell it called Moonshots in Education. marketing budget. And she was preg- door-to-door for 5¢ each. “People called According to Woj, Susan was a model nant. But she jumped. As her sister Janet us the Lemon Sisters. They thought it was child, a great student and a hard worker learned years ago, there’s no mistaking a great deal,” says Wojcicki. “We thought and never went through a rebellious her drive to win. it was a great deal too.” phase. “She was boring like that,” re- Similarly, when Page mentioned the The parallels with her current job are calls her mother. This character assess- opportunity at YouTube, she went after hard to miss. Wojcicki brings something ment seems rosily colored by parental it straightaway. She says she didn’t even made by someone else to other people’s bias until Woj talks about her next child: need to think about it. But when she took homes for an unbeatable price. And there “That’s why I had Janet so quickly. But over in February 2014, it took employees are two ways to regard what she delivers: then Janet didn’t come out the same way. a while to warm up to her, partly because either it’s the product of a genius, or it’s a of the unexpectedness of her arrival and lemon. In any case, it’s a great deal. partly because her management style fa- The Lemon Sisters are all remarkably vors efficiency over chumminess. “I’m not accomplished—think of the Brontës, but the kind of person who hangs out in the with indoor plumbing and access to sci- coffee area for an hour and has random ence labs. Anne, the youngest, is the co- conversations with people,” she says. “I founder and CEO of the genetic-testing She worked for like to be home for dinner with my kids, company 23andMe. The middle, Janet, is firms as varied so I am ruthless about blocking my time.” an assistant professor of pediatrics at the For an executive who has spent most of University of California, San Francisco. as garbage her career in advertising, Wojcicki is not Their childhood was idyllic: bike rides, companies and particularly silver-tongued: she shrugs, swim club and family gatherings with raises her eyebrows and says “I mean” and brainiacs. Susan was a nerdy kid, but not tech-finance “like” a lot while she talks, like a novice mega-nerdy. She didn’t take a computer- startups debater. “I think, if I would sort of outline

MICHELLE PHAN SMOSH ISSA RAE BETHANY MOTA The makeup tutorialist has Comedy duo Ian Andrew The actor launched her The style vlogger known for built a loyal following of fans Hecox and Anthony Padilla popular web series The offering advice on subjects who tune in for her tips on have been making spoofs and Misadventures of Awkward like “lazy-days hair” and DIY everything from perfect brows sketch videos since 2005. Black Girl on YouTube; now decor has gone on to launch to clubbing looks; now she This year they got their own she’s developing her own a line with Aéropostale and has her own line with L’Oréal. movie from Lionsgate. show for HBO. appear on Project Runway. Subscribers: 7.9 million Subscribers: 21 million Subscribers: 202,000 Subscribers: 9.3 million

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TIME RIGHT PAGE STORY SLUGS: SEQUENCE: DESIGNER: GUIDE#: REMARKS: ISSUE DATE: SECTION: my vision and my strategy, [it] is to have a One of her chief approaches, say both ing with various Play-Doh and Disney toys great service, keep making it better, keep her critics and friends, is to spend a lot of is nothing more than back-to-back, fea- updating it for the times, like keep mak- Google’s money. “Sometimes rather than ture-length ads. These issues have drawn ing it more mobile, faster, etc.,” she says. doing the hard work of making some- the attention of consumer groups and the “But then let’s really­ dig into these areas thing, she’d rather just buy it,” says an- Federal Trade Commission. In June, Bill that we know are really important for us other former colleague. But to Wojcicki Nelson, the ranking member of the Senate like music, gaming and kids.” (rhymes with “so risky”), this is merely Commerce Committee, sent Larry Page As visions go, this is pretty practical pragmatic. “If I see a shortcut, by hiring what could be called a please-­explain too. Of the 100 most watched clips on the right person or buying the right com- letter. YouTube as of August 2015, 89 are of- pany or building the product one way as For all her willingness to simplify and ficial music videos. Ten of the other 11 opposed to another way,” she says, that’s press play on new initiatives, Wojcicki are for really little kids. (The remaining the route she takes. “I just want to get has not been able to solve YouTube’s one is the 2007 classic “Charlie Bit My things done.” most nagging issue: how to create a paid Finger—­Again,” a story of love, pain and That decisiveness helps her push music-­video subscription, which it has forgiveness, all in a tight 55 seconds.) And through new products, like those unveiled been promising for at least two years YouTube’s gaming channels are crazily earlier this year. In February, Wojcicki and which several rival companies have popular; the Swedish gamer PewDiePie launched YouTube Kids, an app that already released. Since music is the back- (rhymes with cutie pie) has nearly 39 mil- fences in a safe corner of the Internet for bone of YouTube, and the music industry lion subscribers. He reportedly made parents to let their kids explore. It also re- is fed up with the tiny share of revenues it $7 million from his videos and endorse- designed its app to make it more mobile-­ receives for those videos, this is what tech ments last year. friendly and announced a new service that people would call nontrivial. Wojcicki’s Wojcicki’s straightforwardness is what will offer nothing but gaming videos, so argument—that YouTube is different be- colleagues say makes her effective: she’s that, as product manager Alan Joyce puts cause people discover music there, rather a simplifier in a group that tends to see it, “when you want something specific, than just play what they know they like— things as complicated. “If you’re part of you can search with confidence, know- is unlikely to placate the music industry Google you have to be analytical. There’s ing that typing ‘call’ will show you Call for long. no way around it,” says YouTube’s global of Duty and not ‘Call Me Maybe.’” But she bristles at the idea­ that this head of business, . (Appar- But it can also mean those products delay—or her plans for the company— ently an unspellable last name also helps.) aren’t perfect. The algorithm that decides suggests a lack of vision. “I’ve been able “But Susan also has five kids. She’s a very what’s appropriate for kids occasionally to see a lot of trends before other people,” regular person-mom who knows what lets the wrong stuff through. (A brief she says. “I’ve invested and tried to make regular problems mean for a lot of peo- search for “candy” on the YouTube Kids the trends a reality.” The myth persists, she ple. And so she’s able to bring normalcy app, designed for children under 5, led believes, because Silicon Valley hasn’t seen to a lot of different decisions.” this reporter pretty quickly to a video of enough female leaders yet. “I also have a In other words, Wojcicki is more adept actors simulating sex, one of them partly style where I’m casual and nice to people. at ducking than leaping. Or even more ac- disrobed.) That, and being woman, causes people to curately, she’s willing to stand and absorb And an algorithm can’t really calculate underestimate what I can get done.” the blow. In 2007, while in advertising, the infinite variations in parents’ opin- She certainly doesn’t let a family feud she orchestrated Google’s purchase of ions about what’s appropriate. Millions stop her. Wojcicki laughs off the sugges- DoubleClick for $3.1 billion, which many of parents let their toddlers watch toy tion that her sister Anne’s split with Brin Googlers thought was antithetical to the unboxing videos. But to many others, a makes life at work awkward. “I’ve always company’s founding principles, because 55-minute­ clip of hands opening and play- had to keep home at home and work at it gave the search giant the dubious honor work,” she says. “I have a really good re- of being one of the largest users of the In- lationship with [Brin]. I’ve worked with ternet tracking devices known as cookies. Larry and Sergey for more than 16 years. She held her ground; now most people And I lived with them when they worked don’t care about cookies. And Google’s in my house. I’ve seen a lot.” ad-sales business soared. (Of the $66 bil- lion in revenue it brought in last quarter, Wojcicki has not Perhaps it was that confidence that en- some 90% came from ads.) abled Wojcicki to make another unusu- “She’s great at taking a place that has yet solved ally bold career move shortly after taking overcomplicated a problem and basically YouTube’s most over YouTube. She got pregnant with her ignoring all the complexities and doing fifth child, seven years after her fourth. the thing that is brain-dead obvious,” says nagging issue: “Once you have a big family, like, the kids a former Google employee who doesn’t creating a paid are just like, ‘Bring one more on for the wish to be identified because he still does club!’” she says. Her husband Dennis business with the firm. “And then living music-video Troper also works outside the home, and with the consequences.” subscription the two have help and stacks of money, 74 Time September 7–14, 2015

TIME LEFT PAGE STORY SLUGS: SEQUENCE: DESIGNER: GUIDE#: REMARKS: ISSUE DATE: SECTION: becoming part of it.” Green credits You- Tube with helping him meet Esther, on whose life he based his mega best seller The Fault in Our Stars, and with finding and connecting with most of his readers. He and his brother Hank have made quite a business out of YouTube engagement, although not primarily through advertis- ing, even though their videos have been watched 800 million times. They sell ser- vices to other , and they orga- nize VidCon, a conference for online- video creators, many of whom are under 25. It sold out this year. “I’m not here to entertain you or to educate you or to kiss up to you,” he told the advertisers. “I am here to scare you.” Both at Brandcast and VidCon, Wojcicki went out of her way to make the creators feel special. There were bill- boards promoting them. She addressed A 2002 meeting at the fledgling Google with then CEO , co-founders them directly in her speeches and spent Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Wojcicki and Marissa Mayer, now CEO of Yahoo time visiting them. The company has built studios they can use in Los Angeles, New but that doesn’t mean it has been easy. connect to in a specific way. That content York City, London, Tokyo, São Paulo and She thinks motherhood might be one is on YouTube. And it’s not on TV.” Berlin, with two more opening next year of the reasons she’s one of the less well- Younger viewers subscribe to channels in Toronto and Mumbai. Much as known tech executives. “Having young of the YouTubers they like and interact got a bump from original programming kids has in some ways made it a little bit with them in the comments. They’re a like House of Cards, YouTube is making harder for me,” she says. “It was a little very engaged bunch, and not surprisingly, original programming with its stars. Four bit harder to travel. I was probably a little­ advertisers love them. To keep them com- shows have been announced so far. bit less willing to go to lots of evening ing, YouTube has to keep putting up a lot As Wojcicki plots a future for You- events.” But she says what she learned at of new content. More than 400 hours of Tube she will need their help. Not only work made her a better mother. “At work I video is uploaded to YouTube every min- must the company contend with youth- have to delegate,” she says. “At home I got ute (that’s 65 years a day), three times as savvy tech firms—your , your better at getting people to help me so I can much as was being posted two years ago. Spotifys, your Vines—but established focus on the things that are important.” That means more sharing and more en- media companies are onto the fact that Not surprisingly she’s a big advocate of gagement. So it’s crucial the company kids are just future users. In August paid family leave. Her favorite YouTube keeps its creators happy. HBO signed a five-year deal with Sesame video as of this writing is a 12-minute This year YouTube shrewdly com- Street to carry new seasons of the child- rant by Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver bined Brandcast, its dog and pony show hood classic on its streaming services. on why mandating paid maternity leave for advertisers in , with a This month, both Amazon and Netflix is a really good idea. On the other hand, meet-up between YouTube stars and their launched new kids’ shows. she’s a realist. New parents who work at fans. As media buyers walked in, they Google execs did not choose a mother Google get 18 weeks’ leave, but since her could not miss the long lines of teenagers of four (at the time) to head up YouTube fifth was born last December, Wojcicki waiting to meet their favorite video stars. because she knew how to deal with kids has taken only 14. The marketers nibbled their canapés and or relate to young creative types. But the Wojcicki’s experience with kids—hers swirled their cocktails on a mezzanine online video portal is Google’s most un- range in age from 8 months to 15 years—is floor with ample viewing opportunities ruly product. “YouTube is as much a com- now a business advantage. They are her of tweens and teens—some of whom had munity product as it is an algorithm,” says first guinea pigs for many of her ideas. lined up for more than six hours for a Hunter Walk, a former Googler and You- “There are two very different kinds of 30-second interaction—not quite keep- Tuber, who worked with Wojcicki at Ad- users of YouTube,” she says. The first ing it together during their selfies. Sense. “It involves humans to a greater kind come to the site for a specific video— “Young people have created a fasci- degree than some other of Google’s prod- they’re looking for information or they’ve nating and complex world of deep en- ucts do.” So, as it faces increasing com- clicked on somebody else’s link. “Those gagement online,” author John Green petition from all corners of the Internet, tend to be older people. But the younger said at the event. “A world in which they it only makes sense to have it headed by

PETER DASILVA—THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX generation has found content that they are not just watching content online but someone who speaks human. • 75

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