Social Networking Archives

Vine : 6 second video app

Twitter just released its IOS apps a few days ago called Vine. User can create a 6 second looped video and share it with their friends. Some comments said that this move is a better use of UGC (User Generated Content). I think Twitter is actually paving the way for video advertising.

Twitter, is a text based social network website in the very beginning. In Jun 2011, it started to provide image upload and sharing feature in order to retain users. The latest move is simply a step forward to support video creation and sharing for Twitter user. Twitter put this feature up as a separate app is a smart move since video content creation is a relative complicated process. Twitter want to keep Twitter layout and feature neat and clear for communication rather than content creation. Keep it as a separate brand also enables the content dissemination across different social networking website.

Back to the Vine’s feature, it is so simple and some commentator simply called it the 6 second video Instagram. I think there are a few good reason why Twitter would like to restrict video length to be 6 seconds:

1. The Internet users nowadays are very inpatient. The 6 second length limit is even shorter than a TVC which used to be 10 seconds or longer. This 6 second limit is a challenge the status quo and also the users – how to better use that 6 second video (definitely they cannot insert 200+ images inside like cinema movies).

2. In the longer term, when Twitter users and other vine users are used to that 6 second limit, will it be a new video ad format? Thank about the youtube video ad that users can skip the video after a few seconds. If the video ad is just 6 seconds long, it will be viewed completely before being stopped. As a result, advertisers can communicate the whole ad message to their target audience which will postively impact the campaign effectiveness.

3. The third point is also ad related. With this video content creation app available, Twitter can also unblock the advertisers who are affordable for video ad creation.

All these suggested why BlackRock was just reported last Friday (1/25/2013) that she has taken an USD 80 million stake in Twitter.

Facebook is social networking? Yes. Was it the first social networking website? No, What were others? It could be MySpace, Xanga, Friendster. Where are they? They are all history. Why? Because facebook runs a very successful developer network which it can leverage to create new attractions for users and build the traffic.

Some facebook app developers are very successful that they have gone public even earlier than facebook itself. I would say the app developer and facebook are preforming a kind of symbiosis ecosystem:

– App developers use their creativities to enrich the facebook users : providing them games, entertainment, fun, news, gossips. Facebook need to do nothing but can keep number of users growing and satisfied.
– In return, facebook allows developers get access (it can be free / paid) to user’s friend list (under users permission) to do viral marketing for their products / services / websites for free.

Another Facebook’s smart move is the product they roll out – they can always add a little tweak to better engage their users. An example is photo. Photo is not just upload and sharing, but enables you to tag people / place name in the photo, which is pretty cool, even though it is nothing new. When you look at a group photo, you might want to know who is who just like the caption of a news photo.

I has been a facebook user for 4 years, however, am spending less and less time on it because

– There are some more specific social networking website available. e.g. LinkedIn (jobs and profession)
– I have already found and met enough old friends in the first few months
– I am not keen on sharing everything to everybody, but I do not want to learn how to restrict which groups / friends / people can read my message

Nowadays, I am consuming facebook for content (Pages) more than anything else. Next, I will talk about how facebook can still monetize through users like me via their advertising!