

Socialcam #1 - justin
http://justinkan.com/socialcam-1

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ahsanhilal
With all due respect to the socialcam team, I also think their viral growth is
due to some underhanded techniques that they are using by posting, without
user content, on news feeds.

Here is my post on HN regarding this:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3917074>

Basically if you click on a social cam video on facebook, which takes you to
social cams webapp to view the video, the video also gets added and shared to
your newsfeed without user consent

I really really do not like apps using underhanded techniques to go forth with
their viral agendas. If I really wanted to share this video, than I WOULD
HAVE. That is what a like/share is, isn't it?

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thomasilk
I really hate it when tools use such underhanded techniques, but I get it from
a business point of view.

Especially social apps like SocialCam need to become the biggest network in
their space to succeed in the end. Being number two in the social space is a
far worse than in any other market because of network effects.

It's probably worth offending some users and even loosing some. Especially
posting it on your wall, when you click on it, is something that most users
don't care about. I've asked some of my not so tech-savy friends and they
think it's totally okay.

Something that doesn't work at all is posting something without any action
from the user or from a different source than their facebook timeline (for
example from an mobile app) without their consent. This can kill your product
and will upset nearly everybody.

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ahsanhilal
But that is exactly what they are doing. All I did was click on the video
posted, and that immediately posted on my feed, and people started commenting
on it. No approval solicited.

Didn't Facebook recently warn apps from doing this? I thought chill (the
turntable for video) got a slap on the wrist for doing something similar

~~~
ericflo
The distinction, as I understand it, is the "voice" the app uses. Chill said
something like "Hey I just joined Chill and it's pretty cool, you should check
it out!" First person. Socialcam says "John Doe has watched Rick Roll Video."
Third person.

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jampel
Thats BS. It is malicious spam. There used to be vids that would pop up on
walls and when you clicked them it would do the SAME thing as socialcam. Those
were spam because they posted to you wall "girl on rollercoster has orgasm" or
something stupid so that others would click and it would spread. Now "viral"
has no meaning because it is forced upon the people. What if i thought the vid
i watch premoted sexism and DID NOT want others to watch it? Well to bad, now
even bad vids well go viral all you need is enough friends who have enough
friend. Soon i wont even be able to use facebook for what it is good for,
keeping in touch, and viewing the feeds that i have chosen to appear

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pg
I was very impressed by these guys during YC. They already knew so much about
video from working on it at Justin.TV (plus Michael already knew so much about
being a CEO) that it was like watching an experienced pilot.

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aguynamedrich
I keep seeing these awkward auto-posts on Facebook from both Socialcam and
Viddy, and as someone not seeking out a product like either of these, this is
my only impression of these services. People in my social graph who clearly
wouldn't want others seeing activity about the racy videos they've clicked on
are getting wall posts like "Grandpa just watched 'Tiniest bikini' on
Socialcam". Between the Facebook spam and the cliche "it's like [other
service] for [slightly different usage]" make me much more skeptical than
curious.

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nedludd
I consider Socialcam a virus. No wonder it's spreading. On mobile I should not
be forced to install an app just to watch a Facebook video.

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bobrenjc93
The amount of spam I see from apps like Socialcam and Viddy reminds me of the
days of FarmVille spam. The problem is that this model is not sustainable. If
you look at FarmVille's popularity
(<http://www.google.com/trends/?q=farmville>), you can see that it peaks and
then quickly drops. Whenever I see this type of growth I think of the quote
"trick me once, shame on you. trick me twice, shame on me". When you have
"artificial" traction on a network as large as facebook, you can use your
momentum to get more and more users. However, to survive in the long term,
your value proposition has to be great enough such that users forgive you for
sneakily using their account to spam. This wasn't the case for FarmVille, and
personally, I don't think it will be the case for either Socialcam or Viddy.

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latchkey
Funny, I just blocked and removed this app on FB today after noticing they had
posted to my wall about me watching a video. I have zero tolerance for spammy
apps.

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justhw
This is the one thing I avoid on facebook all the time. It spams my newsfeed
all the time, with a text like "michalel watched this video on socialcam."
Pure Spam with no value. If you happen to click that link, socialcam will spam
your friends wall by saying " tom watched this video on Socialcam."

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salimmadjd
Socialcam's growth is fake! Aside from the already mentioned underhanded
spamming. Their growth comes from non-Socialcam content. Most Socialcam video
viewing I see among my Facebook friends are viral videos that are just
uploaded from YouTube, etc.

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dwrowe
Impressive growth, albeit through less than amazing means. Instagram grew, but
didn't require viewers to have any account or attachment to the platform /
application. Socialcam / Viddy both grow _truly_ virally through Facebook in
that it posts to your wall when a video is viewed. What _is_ interesting is
the sociological side of things, which highlights what most people are
actually interested in vs what they claim in reality.

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kevinherron
Bleh, Socialcam is viral spam.

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jaredsohn
This is the stat that is actually impressive (both their mobile user count now
and aggregated over time).

Previously, we had been seeing statistics about how many people are viewing
their videos on Facebook. One problem with that they allow uploading any
arbitrary video so, for example, their statistics include views of a "Dark
Knight Rises" trailer.

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rguzman
this is very impressive. i'm a little skeptical, however, whether this type of
video sharing will get mainstream adoption (like, say, instagram).

people like 3 things re:pictures: 1) take them, 2) show them off, and 3) look
at them. this has been true since way before the internet. the advent of the
video camera on phones makes 1) happen, but i'm not sure about 2 or 3. for
example, i'm seldom inclined to watch any socialcam video that shows up on my
FB feed, but i click on pictures a lot more often than i don't.

~~~
freshbreakfast
I think your skepticism is correct if you go strictly follow logic along the
"instagram for video" metaphor. Which is natural, everyone wants to make that
corollary right now given Instagram's recent successes.

But I wonder if the metaphor is limiting. How about "Youtube for mobile"? As
more and more media consumption happens in mobile, can't we expect consumers
to extend their patience and habits for longer formats?

~~~
rguzman
fair enough. on the other hand, i arrived at this by thinking about the role
that pictures play in the lives of my friends & family, and my experience. not
by analogy with instagram.

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davidtyleryork
Looks like "Instagram for video" is a two-horse race between Socialcam and
Viddy (blurred out, but ranked #3 in that photo with 2800+ reviews and 4.5
stars).

I'm curious, what is Socialcam's strategy for winning this dogfight? It's
going to be very interesting considering how it's a similar, winner-take-all
market dynamic as Instagram, but with two legitimate contenders this late in
the game.

~~~
DanielRibeiro
Viddy also raise a lot of money recently: [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/04/27/...](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/04/27/businessinsiderviddy-series-b-2012-.DTL)

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dirkdk
hey guys you raised your massive angel round, time to tune down on the
Facebook spamming. And a little more classy champion wouldn't hurt either

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boobdock
They are downloading copyrighted youtube videos, stripping everything youtube,
and uploading them into socialcam. Either youtube will shut them down, or its
going be a big mess for everyone.

Eg:
[http://s3.amazonaws.com/com.socialcam.videos/yvideos/2012-5-...](http://s3.amazonaws.com/com.socialcam.videos/yvideos/2012-5-1/ew1uinkP.mp4)

[http://s3.amazonaws.com/com.socialcam.videos/yvideos/2012-5-...](http://s3.amazonaws.com/com.socialcam.videos/yvideos/2012-5-2/a93XOr9u.mp4)

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sebbean
Instagram for video?

