Transcript
Benedict Townsend (0:02)
This is a Global Player original podcast. It's a bright day in Los Angeles, California in autumn 2015. And in a building just a stone's throw from the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a meeting is about to change the course of history. It's taking place in the conference room of an apartment block where a group of online creators live and make videos together. The address, 1600 Vine Street. The name is no coincidence. The 18 people in this room are Vine's biggest stars. The most popular faces of a platform that, though none of them realise it yet, is just months away from total collapse. If you were Anywhere online in the 2010s, you'd probably recognise the building when its modern apartments, overlooking public courtyards with views of Hollywood were the backdrop to the Internet's most viral videos. And you definitely recognize a few of the people in the room. A tight knit crew of attractive, barely 20 somethings known for cross posting videos of pranks and sketch comedy. Excuse me, man in the muscle shirt.
Rich Arnold (1:12)
Did you get any muscles with that shirt?
Benedict Townsend (1:14)
Help me first.
Russ Yusupov (1:15)
I'll save you. Woohoo.
Rich Arnold (1:16)
He's already gone.
Russ Yusupov (1:17)
Yeah, but that backflip though. What's up guys?
Jake Paul (1:19)
I'm just chilling with my boy Jerome.
Russ Yusupov (1:21)
My name's not Jerome, you stupid white mother.
Benedict Townsend (1:23)
Sure, most of us were uploading dumb homemade videos back then, but the 1600 Viners, spearheaded by two shaggy haired brothers named Logan and Jake Paul, turned it into a business. The guys you're about to meet have more followers than the biggest celebrities. And just one post can earn tens of thousands from advertisers.
Jake Paul (1:45)
The way we got started on vine is my brother and I were in a competition to see who could have the most followers. And we Both had like 200 followers and I had more. And I was like, dude, I'm gonna get more followers than you. And he was like, no. And then it just took off from there. When I told my friends, yeah guys, like, let's go make a Vine. Like I wanna be vine famous. And they're like in high school, they wanna play football or whatever. They're like, yeah, okay Logan, go ahead, be vine famous. So that's how it started out. And then started getting phone calls, being like, yo, promote my app. Eventually the money started growing and growing and growing. And then eventually people were like, come out to Los Angeles and be in my TV show. Audition for this. I want to be your manager. I want to be your agent. It all started happening so fast.
