Segment video sharing application Viddy or will be the successor of Instagram

Viddy is a video sharing community. You can shoot interesting videos and share them with your friends. While supporting video sharing to Facebook and Twitter, similar to the "Instagram" of the video version, is popular among young people, and industry insiders estimate that it could be the next Instagram to become its veritable successor.

Viddy by Brent Oblein (Brett O ' Brien) and Auguchber (JJ Aguhob), founded on October 1, 2010, headquartered in Los Angeles, California, the following April 11 officially released products, there are currently 11 employees. Shortly after the launch, the app ushered in 10 million registered users. For a mobile application, the user base reached tens is an important milestone, and then the user stickiness, which means hundreds of millions of of dollars in valuation. It can be seen that its development prospects can not be neglected.

Short video sharing application Viddy

Viddy co-founder Brent Oblein (Brett O ' Brien) and Auguchber (JJ aguhob)

Facebook spent 1 billion of dollars on a mobile photo-delivery platform Instagram a pioneering miracle. A two-year-old company with only 13 employees, products launched 18 months, 40 million registered users, so far 0 revenue, 1 billion U.S. dollar valuation; These keywords were completely unthinkable in the former smartphone era, a new entrepreneurial marvel created by mobile internet and picture socializing.

In the age of mobile internet, the word "social" is ubiquitous. The smartphone becomes the most important way of human virtual communication, and fragmentation sharing becomes the main social content. If Twitter is based primarily on a 140-character text-social model, then Instagram and the recently rising Pinterest have validated the success of the photo-exchange, so does the social model based on the third-largest carrier video have its own representative product, in addition to text and pictures?

The answer is yes, with the upgrade of the mobile network, the United States has gradually entered the age of 4G communications, video-sharing social model has ushered in the spring. According to the concept of heat medium and cold medium, it is a cold medium with less information and more participation than text, picture or short video. Currently, mobile social applications based on short video have Socialcam, Viddy, Klip, Mobli, and color. Among them, the most powerful development is relying on Facebook platform and celebrity Viddy.

Accumulated experience in early pioneering business

Viddy is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Brent Oblein (Brett O ' Brien) and Auguchber (JJ Aguhob) was founded on October 1, 2010, the following April 11 officially released products, there are currently 11 employees. The app ushered in 10 million registered users this week. For a mobile application, the user base reached tens is an important milestone, and then the user stickiness, which means hundreds of millions of of dollars in valuation.

The key to success in entrepreneurship is people, and Viddy's success is closely related to O ' Brien's experience. O ' Brien graduated from the most famous Wharton school in the United States and founded several companies. He co-founded the Melfi Oblein (Murphy O ' Brien) PR brokerage firm with his wife Karen in 1989, and is currently one of the best independent PR companies in the Los Angeles area. Karen is chairman and CEO, O ' Brien as managing director.

In 1999, O ' Brien founded the digital asset Management and storage services company Xdrive, Auguchber joined as chief product officer in 2003. Xdrive then sold 30 million dollars to AOL in 2005, and Auguchber joined AOL as chief product manager for less than two years. The creation of xdrive to O ' Brien brings the experience of operating a digital content Storage Web site, which has helped him create Viddy later.

In 2007, the two men again co-founded the digital music video storage site Pluggedin, which can be seen as the music version of Hulu, the movie site. In April the following year, Pluggedin was formally tested, and the video included High-quality MTV from EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Records and many independent record companies.

The entrepreneurial experience of PR companies and music and video sites has made O ' Brien closely related to Hollywood. He has a personal relationship with a well-known entertainer such as Smith (would Smith), and has many years of cooperation with many record companies. This celebrity relationship was later proved to be a vital part of Viddy's success. O ' Brien is currently the CEO of Viddy, while Auguchber as product leader.

Learn from Instagram model

Viddy can be seen as a video version of the Instagram, its operating model and product features also have many similarities with Instagram. O ' Brien does not deny this, "although our idea of Viddy is Instagram for all, but Instagram's success has provided many inspirations and experiences for Viddy development."

"We have seen a huge market opportunity based on smartphone shooting, editing and sharing video," O ' Brien said in a media interview earlier. Instagram's success has made many people realise that video is an important sharing medium in addition to socializing with the United States. And this is the experience that Viddy to offer. ”

The same as Instagram, Viddy also after 6 months of research and development, officially launched on April 11, 2011. The application's functional model is the same as the Instagram, the user takes 15 seconds of video, then add a variety of filters, with a variety of music, and then upload to share. Viddy shooting function is more powerful, you can choose 4:3 or 16:9 of the format, you can use the grid line for framing, can set the time delay self-portraits, and even white balance lock, lock exposure and focus on the function. These are not available on the iphone's built-in camera function.

After shooting, the user can tag, add description, plus location information. In terms of sharing, Viddy also achieved cross-platform sharing. Users can choose to upload to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube, while uploading to Viddy's own platform. Each other can pay attention to each other, praise (like) and reviews video, you can also share other people's videos to the four social platforms.

From the official introduction of Viddy can also see the shadow of Instagram, O ' Brien especially stressed the "convenient", "landscaping" and "sharing" the three major product elements. Portable operations, cross-platform sharing, and built-in communities are the three key elements of Instagram's success. and contrast another mobile video sharing application color can also see the concept of Viddy difference, the latter video length is 30 seconds, and no music and other editing functions.

In addition, Viddy is facing the same market space as the Instagram, the official applications of YouTube and Facebook, the two major video platforms, do not directly capture the function of the video, only through the iphone's built-in camera after filming and upload, the operation is more cumbersome, And there is no artistic processing function. It is the traditional social networking site to ignore the mobile function, only to Instagram and Viddy brought development space.

Facebook and celebrity

In fact, Viddy's real big start came this February, thanks to the integration with the Facebook Timeline (Timeline) feature. This January, Facebook opened the Open graph and timeline interface, allowing more than 60 startups to automatically publish user behavior on Facebook's timeline. After integration with Facebook, Viddy users are beginning to explode with explosive growth. Two months, Facebook users have achieved 15 million Viddy through the Viddy user base from millions to the current tens of millions of times. Viddy users grow at an eye-popping rate of 300,000 a day.

In addition to the huge base that Facebook brings, celebrity is also an important reason for Viddy. Thanks to the work experience of PR companies and music and video platforms, O ' Brien has brought many celebrity users to Viddy. In addition to Smith, the presence of many artists such as the rock band Lincoln Park (LinkedIn Park), the Latin diva Shakira (Shakila) and the hip-hop King Jay has brought a lot of fans to Viddy.

In addition to pulling celebrity users, Viddy also turned celebrities into their own investors. In February this year, Viddy completed a round of financing of $6 million, Battery Ventures, Qualcomm and New York venture capital Greycroft Ventures. But of the 6 million dollars, 250,000 dollars are from the stars. Biz, the Twitter co-founder, has also invested in Viddy.

Viddy's user growth rate seems to be Instagram: April 18 Viddy users are still 8 million, and by April 23 they broke 10 million. In more than a week, Viddy has firmly occupied the top of the App Store iphone app, with more than 6,200 users rated at more than 4 stars (5 stars). According to the US tech blog, Viddy currently has a valuation of more than 300 million dollars.

In addition, O ' Brien used his relationship with the record company to make the Viddy platform a stage for major record companies to promote new albums and MTV. This has attracted more users, on the other hand, it also brings the possibility of commercial operation in the future.

After funding, O ' Brien is investing in Android and ipad versions, while Windows Phone and BlackBerry apps are also under consideration. In addition, he faces the problem of content monitoring. On February 25 this year, Viddy was briefly under the shelf of Apple's App Store because of the plethora of female-exposed content on the video platform. How to improve the content monitoring technology, discover and delete the inappropriate content in time, is also the important problem that viddy long-term development needs to deal with.

The analysis suggests that Facebook's acquisition of Instagram means that the start of traditional social networking and mobile social integration could spark rival Google's takeover battle. The rise of video-social apps such as Viddy has also brought more possibilities after the success of the photo company, and it is believed that traditional strongmen such as YouTube and Facebook will not turn a blind eye. Just, Instagram 1 billion dollars sold his picture Kingdom Dream, Viddy will be reconciled?