Playfan Wants to Usher In an Era of Video-Only Social Identities
Short-form communication online is becoming the standard, and now a service called Playfan wants to get into the market by offering video-only social identities
Short-form communication online is becoming the standard. It has become so ubiquitous that an app called Yo — which sends only the word “Yo” to contacts — remains in existence. Instagram and Vine have also proven the market for short-form video. Now a service called Playfan wants to get into the market by offering video-only social identities.
According to the official press release, there are “No photos, no long bios, just video profiles.” The purpose of stripping down the profile is to allow people to express themselves without being so tied to a profile that includes standard identifying information that may no longer be relevant, like their hometown.
The videos themselves are limited to 15 seconds, and only one appears on your page at a time, but archived videos can be accessed by other users. Users can also send private messages and reshare content.
“Storytelling is the most fundamental way humans socialize and convey information about and to one another,” said Alberto Ramirez, founder and CEO of Oppous, the mobile development company behind Playfan.
He continued:
The social Web binds us together in unique and inextricable ways with family, friends, co-workers, acquaintances and even strangers. Yet currently all of our profiles across all of these social networks remain static with just a photo and some general information … Our goal is to become the tool of choice for personalization on the Web.
The Playfan blog highlights users of the day, and it seems the network is currently short on users. That’s to be expected of a startup service, but a social network lives and dies on its ability to capture an audience, and competitors like Vine and Instagram are already way ahead.
Additionally, the content created for the site can influence the direction of the network more than the intended use case. There’s a little bit of “Do it for the Vine”-style content, which is pretty far away from the high minded ideals of creating a social network that will forever change identity management online.
