Apparently, No One is Using Video Apps Anymore
By: Taylor Davies

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Have you ever wondered who’s actually using mobile video apps on their smart phones? Apparently, not very many people at all. At least, not anymore.

In an interesting article from Business Insider, talking about the dramatic decline in monthly users of once-popular video apps SocialCam and Viddy. Admittedly, I have both installed on my iPhone, but haven’t used either since I first tried them out months ago.

The article cites that the combined monthly users of these apps was once at an impressive 100 million, prompting many to expect one or the other to emerge as “the Instagram of video.” However, in the last six months, that number has dropped to about 5 million – Viddy currently has just 660,000 monthly users.

So… What happened? According to the article, the drastic drop comes because of, believe it or not, Facebook, who changed the rules, and their counting methods that identify what qualifies as a “user.” (A commenter on the article implied that for this reason, they may have never actually been 100 million true users to begin with.)

“Facebook cracked down on spammy apps like Viddy and Socialcam which essentially tricked users into installing the app in order to watch a video,” the article states.

I couldn’t help but wonder if the problem goes beyond technical difficulties – do people even want to shoot and share video content? Personally, I’m just naturally not as inclined to shoot videos as I am to snap a quick photo – and so the apps never got much use. Additionally, I never felt like I knew a lot of other bloggers who were on these networks, which would have been a big motivator.

Do you use social video apps on your smart phone? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Comments

  1. Donna says:
    November 27, 2012 at 5:48 pm · Reply

    Unfortunately I can’t afford the data plan for a smart phone right now, but if I had one I’m almost positive that I wouldn’t use video apps. I’ve never been a big user of video, for a few reasons. First I’d rather read an article where I can pause and think about what I’m reading, and on sites devoted to video, I get too sucked in. Next thing I know it’s 2 hours later. I’m much happier looking at photos and reading text.
    Donna
    http://www.prettysparklythings.blogspot.com

  2. ttrujillo says:
    November 28, 2012 at 1:21 am · Reply

    Whoa! interesting. I haven’t been able to create a lot of videos on Viddy, just go your point of it not being as easy as snapping a photo, but brands like DVF do a great job. Hoping that maybe Instagram could evolve to both short videos and photos in one?

  3. Avatar of Barbara
    Barbara says:
    November 28, 2012 at 8:34 am · Reply

    Nah, don’t think I will be as quick to share videos as pictures. Good thing this is gradually being phased out. Heavy apps and slow phones go hand in hand.
    Barbara
    http://barbsiesmusings.blogspot.com/
    Lagos, Nigeria

  4. Avatar of Nasreen
    Nasreen says:
    November 28, 2012 at 12:50 pm · Reply

    I’ve never used those apps I dont know theyre just not appealing to me! But as a fashion blogger I would like to tape some “behind the scenes” kind of thing :)

    http://lazyobsession.blogspot.com

  5. Jessica says:
    November 29, 2012 at 6:56 am · Reply

    I can believe this. Though I’ve never used either of these, I was once addicted to YouTube, but I haven’t even signed on there in months…

  6. Juliet says:
    December 5, 2012 at 3:35 pm · Reply

    I think it’s more difficult to share moments on video especially when mobile because of the editing ability. With Instagram if my face is too shiny I can hide it with a certain filter. I have started using Keek and Cinemagram, but not sure if my audience is on these platforms. The benefit of the 2 is that they only allow short (less than 36 sec clips) of your day or whatever you wish to share. I’ll let you know in 6 mos if I’m still using them.

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