Monday, March 12, 2012

Is the Market Ready for Video Tweets?

Do we need a video version of Twitter? Start-up Vsnap hopes so. It is described as an app for users to share video messages of 60 seconds or less.

The company was founded only last May by Claudia Santoro and David McLaughlin and is launching this week.  McLaughlin is a serial entrepreneur, having sold his previous start-up to PayPal. He comes from a film background, having written and directed On Broadway, an independent film that included cameos from Will Arnett and Amy Poehler.

Whether the market wants or needs personal videos ("Here's me in front of the Statue of Liberty") is the unknown. But then, who would have guessed that 140-character "blog" posts would catch on? Nor does Vsnap have a business model yet. It is clearly the case of where the technology--having video cameras on every SmartPhone and SmartPhones are in 43% of the pockets of American adults (13 and older)--has created a possible opportunity that was just not there even two or three years ago.