
Mobile Video Sharing App Socialcam (YC W12) Acquired By Autodesk For $60 Million - ramanujam
http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/17/socialcam-autodesk-60-million/
======
joering2
This had to be the least innovative startup PG has ever invested in. I
literally had at least 3 friends quitting Facebook because they couldn't stand
SocialCam spam (yes, I am sure there are ways to turn those off, but go ahead
and educate half a glob about it -- this crap should be opt-out, not in).

Now said that, I'm scared that PG will learn a lesson here and continue this
route by investing in more of those, just because it can virally grow (read:
spam) on Facebook:

PG: what's your idea?

Team: we have this awesome website where every click makes a unicorn poops a
rainbow bricks!

PG: what problem does it solve? how we make money?

Team: we haven't figured out this one yet.

PG: can we connect via Facebook?

Team: oh yes, definitely people will want to share photos of their pooping
unicorns with others on their Facebook Wall.

PG: ok, that's it! I'm in!

~~~
pg
We care more about founders than ideas, and the founders of SocialCam are
great in every respect: nice, effective, and good technically. And SocialCam
itself is necessarily innovative because video sharing is being invented right
now. The app looks simple because they worked hard to make it so.

So the lesson here is actually one that we learned long ago. Great founders
succeed.

~~~
jmathai
Financially, this was probably a great venture. But it's a bit disingenuous to
really consider SocialCam as being a positive innovation. It relied on spam
and taking advantage of users not knowing that it was "opt-out"[1].

I'm not hating on SocialCam (though I _do_ hate it :)). But let's call it what
it is - a good investment.

[1] <https://www.google.com/search?q=socialcam%20sucks>

~~~
tptacek
That's exactly what he just did call it.

~~~
jmathai
While not explicitly stated, it's implied that the team built a "good" and
innovative product. Sure he never said good but he did say that the team is
great in every respect going on to list a few.

The most explicit way to say it would be, "We got in this one for the money.
It's a terrible terrible product in terms of adding value to society but that
wasn't our goal on this one".

He's entirely entitled to do just that...but don't spin it into something
different by skirting the original points he's responding to.

~~~
tptacek
He said he liked the team. I have my issues with Paul Graham but I'm inclined
to believe him when he says a startup has an excellent team.

Apparently, he owes you some deeper explanation about how every company YC
puts money into --- it's more than 100 every year now, isn't it? --- is
managed.

Sorry, I didn't mean to get in the way. By all means: cross examine the
witness.

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treelovinhippie
Is the moral of the story here that we should all spam the crap out of
Facebook activity feeds?

~~~
brackin
They couldn't become an Instagram because they knew their growth wasn't
sustainable or real in any way. They had to sell or they'd fade into
obscurity.

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hornbaker
SocialCam's main competitor, Viddy, just raised at a $370M valuation, and some
data[1] show SocialCam at around 2X the traction of Viddy (post-sharkfin for
both). The modest scale of this acquisition is not the kind of comp you want
to see if you're Viddy, especially with their Series B terms[2].

I'm curious what the HN crowd thinks – has mobile social video peaked, or has
it just not been done well enough yet?

1\. <http://i.imgur.com/ncvPr.png> 2\. <http://www.businessinsider.com/viddy-
series-b-terms-2012-5>

~~~
brackin
Nearly all of social cam's traffic came from the timeline. Viddy is just
content uploaded by me or you, so I'd venture to say most of their traffic is
real but SocialCam was embedding YouTube videos of women in bikini's, funny
clips, etc and whenever you watched one of them it would post on your Facebook
timeline, just watching a video made you a user. This is why half of my
Facebook friends seemed to have SocialCam accounts but not one of them had
actually posted a video.

It's not sustainable and they knew it, Facebook will eventually kill off this
kind of traffic so they sold out before the wave completely fizzles out.

Great job to them, was the right decision.

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majani
I've said it before, and I'll say it again here:

You don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.

SocialCam negotiated a fantastic deal for themselves. Great sale.

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kvogt
Way to go Michael, Ammon, and Guillaume!

~~~
randall
I'm totally in shock right now! SO FREAKING PROUD! Do they mark the start of
the JTV mafia officially?

~~~
sgrove
Nah, I think it was pretty solid already. I guess this is an interesting
inflection point though.

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confluence
Can someone with more knowledge explain the reasoning behind this?

Unfortunately I'm at a loss : (

Congrats to the social cam team though - good to see a justin.tv export doing
so well.

~~~
volaski
Traffic inflation via user manipulation => Lots of spam traffic => People hate
it but because it's spammy it still gets traffic => Socialcam guys realizes
nothing good will come out of the situation => A fool approaches => Sell.

No one's hurt--the founder's made money, the investors made money--except for
the users who found out more than they needed to (and wanted to) know about
their friends and family, such as a daughter finding out their dad watched
bunch of bikini videos and wet tshirt contest videos, etc.

~~~
mbesto
I think the OP was talking about why Autodesk is buying a social media
company.

~~~
justjimmy
SocialCam is a 'social media' company? Serious question. I've always felt it
was more of a link/video spam site that holds barely any original content -
just a long chain of forwarding/referral links.

~~~
mbesto
It's collects media (video) and shares it (social), so I think it would be
considered a social media company. Honestly, not too worried about the
semantics here, the point is that it has nothing to do with 3D
modeling/manipulation software. Buying for customers? Talent acquisition?
Revenue acquisition? It's an odd one for sure...

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pbreit
This is weird. Autodesk? And seems like a pretty early sell for a modest
amount considering the property was #1 in a supposedly hot market. Odd.

~~~
brackin
Because their numbers were boosted using shady tactics that Facebook are
starting to stop, when Facebook completely kills these apps their real traffic
(videos people are actually uploading) will become non existent.

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sanxiyn
FYI, consumer products group of Autodesk referred in the article includes
products such as 3ds Max, Maya, etc.

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abstractbill
Congrats guys!

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randall
Shut. The. Front. Door.

Holy. Crap. Guys!

SO PROUD RIGHT NOW I CAN'T EVEN STAND IT!

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jasonwilk
Congrats to the JTV and SocialCam Teams!

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revorad
Congrats guys!

