
Color Recasts Itself as a Facebook Photo and Video App - taylorbuley
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/color-recasts-itself-as-a-facebook-photo-and-video-app/
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bigethan
I was interested in the two times he used the word "lucky."

The first time he used it to indicate he wasn't lucky (less than 10% of
downloaders using Color), the second time to indicate that they could change
the way facebook users interact (if the app is a success). I felt it was odd
to see him use it both positively and negatively in a few paragraphs, and
think it may indicate that he's not confident in this latest pivot (the first
use felt more true).

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jimboyoungblood
This is one of the funniest stories I've read in a long time.

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jmjerlecki
I think they are just going after something people really don't want. People
don't want to see what their friends are doing because chances are its
nothing. This appeals to 5% (the scobles) of the social world. They aren't
solving a problem that sally facebook has.

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Hyena
That's kinda sad, really. I liked the ad hoc social network aspect. I never
downloaded the app since they had no Android version when I looked. Did they
ever release one?

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danso
I remember when they were first announced, they talked about some pretty whiz-
bang features, such as using your phone's mic to determine where in a room you
were relative to where another Color user was (in conjunction with the phone's
GPS) so that you could algorithmically see the photos that were closest to you
and that were likely taken by people near you.

Not that that sounds technologically unfeasible, but they made it sound like a
current feature. The fact that their $41 million in funding is now basically
an aggregation of Facebook photos plus FaceTime seems to indicate that it was
complete vaporware.

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Hyena
See, I never got to test it. I think this is differently sad now.

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danso
>Although 1 million people downloaded the original app, barely 10 percent are
still using it, said Bill Nguyen, the perennially chipper chief executive and
co-founder of Color. “And that’s if I’m lucky.”

Ten percent of users returning to an app that has almost no utility whatsoever
(due to so few other users using it around you). That's actually quite a
success, but I'm guessing that number is bull.

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danso
Also:

>Mr. Nguyen, who described himself as a “social recluse,” said that he
realized that Color needed to be more engaging and more social to lure in new
users who would find it rewarding.

Facebook wouldn't have been a success if its creator hadn't released it while
he was in college. It's hard to imagine Color, in its ambitious proximity-
based plan, ever being successful with a CEO who doesn't get out.

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mvkel
Exactly. How do you define a strategy to get people more engaged with each
other if you don't like people in the first place? Sure, you could be a genius
marketing person who never leaves the house, but if you're designing a
product, and a company, that requires intimate knowledge of the human
condition, you need to practice what you preach.

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narkee
It seems like a solution looking for a problem.

