A few weeks ago, we at The Practice deliberated over a feature that Facebook seemed to lack:
live video streaming. We concluded that this particular asset could be a brilliant and highly probable step-forward for Facebook’s innovation.

It would offer another source of revenue, divert traffic away from a competitor such as Youtube, and allow brands to merge their promotional videos with their Facebook page under one advertising platform. It seems to be a ‘win-win’ situation for both parties involved.

While fantasy collaborations such as these are often being created in reality- (take Pinstagram for example), new social media platforms are still emerging in their own right.

Making waves recently is the rising popularity in video-sharing apps with Viddy inc., Socialcam, and Mobli Media inc. as the three leading players. They’ve been christened the ‘Instagram for video’, as users can edit, add effects and consequently share their videos with fellow subscribers. To give you an idea of how popular these apps are, Viddy’s current user base stands at 26 million, signing up to 1 million new followers daily. With these types of figures, it’s no wonder that many conglomerates are taking advantage of its promotional opportunities.

However, the CEO of Socialcam, Michael Seibel, identifies his target audience as individual users, stating that the business model of the brand will only amount to 1% of the company’s focus. We at The Practice believe that it could be to their detriment if they’re to limit their approach. We’ve already seen the astronomical success that companies have had through using video-sharing apps. Viddy have demonstrated that their dominant position is tantamount to collaborations and exposure from international companies. From Diane von Furstenberg and Red Bull UK, to General Electric and Warner Bros Records, all have used the app to engage with fans by creating ‘behind-the-scenes’ type promotional clips. These are only 10-15 seconds long each; just enough to give a tempting snapshot.

So what’s the next step? Where businesses are involved, Seibel proposes some interesting ideas that might get big brands on board. These include enabling an auto send-out of a clip to all users upon entering a popularized area such as Times Square. Another intention is to target specific demographics such as students. Movie companies, he suggested, would bode well by broadcasting trailer clips during the lunchtime period, for example.

The question is, how else can video-sharing apps monetize when advertising space isn’t a particularly viable characteristic of mobile apps? Currently, Viddy inc. for example, does charge for add-on features such as filter tools and effects. But is this enough? Secondly, can these apps really hope to achieve the same popularity as photo-sharing apps? After all, they incur higher wireless data costs, not to mention requiring a larger bandwidth.

It still looks like more work is needed to figure out a practical business model. Either that, or these companies need to strike some serious gold in the way that Instagram did!

What do you think lies ahead for Video Sharing? As always, we would love to hear your thoughts. Comment below, join in the chat on Facebook or tweet us @practicedigital