The Selfie Museum Youseum in Amsterdam has already gone bankrupt after more than three years. The branches abroad were so bad that the museum in Holland also had problems. Co-founder Quinn Dierks: We made a mistake.
What began in November 2019 as a contemporary initiative by two cousins ended on Tuesday in a bankruptcy petition before an Amsterdam court. The Instagrammuseum, as the museum is also known, has branches in Amsterdam and Leidschendam in the Netherlands. According to Dirks, both branches have been working “like magic” even today, but it’s no longer sustainable.
Youseum is all about you and you are “inspired” to reflect on the role of social media in your life. Visitors are guided through different areas where they can play and take perfect selfies. Each room has its own theme and is colorful and designed with special features, such as a green bathtub surrounded by plants, loose banknotes against a backdrop of gold walls and a boat half raised above the ground.
more expensive site
Due to the success in the Netherlands, the ambitious entrepreneurs decided to expand their concept abroad. In December 2021, they raised 3 million euros to open a branch in Sweden. According to Dirks it’s in a similar shopping center as in Leidschendam, but it’s bigger and busier. Dirks: Well, this more expensive site didn’t do very well from the start and we managed to keep it open for a year with the money we made in Holland.
A pop-up shop in Germany that had been open for a few weeks last summer was also closed due to disappointing results.
In Sweden, entrepreneurs faced things for which they were not prepared. Dirks: Well, that’s where we got a lid on our nose. We made the mistake of thinking that we could individually copy our success in the Netherlands abroad. But Sweden is a different country. Different rules apply, we don’t speak the language and we have less of a sense of the culture’.
When the founders were told two weeks ago that they had to close their doors in Amsterdam because their anti-squat building contract had expired, they decided to declare bankruptcy.
Expensive furnishings
“Once the storm has subsided, we can start thinking about opening sites in the Netherlands again,” Dirks explains when asked. “When you build a new site, you also have to be able to furnish everything. This equipment costs a lot of money and we don’t have it anymore.”
For now, their priority is to settle things fairly with employees and other stakeholders. Dirks: Well, the starting point is that my cousin and I are going to start something new together, because it’s gone so well. ”
Youseum will remain open to visitors for the time being. I can’t say anything about the cause of the financial problems yet. “It’s (much) too early for that,” Michel Dorten, curator of Blauw Tekstra Uding NV, said in a written response on this site. “Candidates interested in the branch in Leidschendam can contact me.”
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