At Web Summit in Lisbon, there was a presentation from a startup called Vlipsy. They call themselves a service for discovering and sharing short video clips that they call “micro-moments.” These could be funny quotes from your favorite TV show, an inspiring moment from a rock concert, or an epic dunk from the star of your NBA team.
That is brand new information!
Watch & share this Friends video clip in your texts, tweets and comments. Find and share the best video clips and quotes on Vlipsy.
In some ways, the experience is familiar to those of us who use GIFs. Vlipsy works with any chat or social app, allowing users to search for, select and then share the video into their conversation or posts. Unlike GIFs, Vlipsy’s video clips (sit back) have sound, so they are more true to the experience of watching the video. As they said, you don’t watch TV with the sound off, so why are you sharing GIFs with the sound off?
Staking a place in the video space
There appears to be a divergence in video platforms, centered around the length of the video and the way in which people consume that video. On one side you have platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime, producing everything from half-hour episodes to full-length movies. Even platforms like YouTube have been emphasizing longer content, with creators making content up to one hour long. This content works well for sit-back; the type of video you’d watch after dinner on the couch, or download to watch on a flight.
On the other hand, video content is also growing shorter and more social. This is becoming more popular in our busy lives where everyone seems to have such short attention spans. Platforms like Facebook are emphasizing their new Watch Party feature, an attempt to recreate the experience of sitting on a couch, watching a five to ten-minute video with your friends and chatting about it. This type of content is more about the shared experience and could be consumed while you’re doing something else.
Can video really be social?
That’s why Vlipsy’s platform is interesting right now. Because their videos have a length of 30 seconds or less, they’re designed to be viewed quickly and shared socially while users are doing other things.
Co-Founder and CEO Chris Nickless said, “we believe that the future of video on the internet is a sit-forward experience – consumable, shareable everywhere – and we’re building Vlipsy to be the epicenter of this media with distribution to all points of the internet.”
Vlipsy’s front end is a search tool, and you can try it out online or via an iOS or Android app. But Vlipsy really is a set of tools, resources, and functionality that exists in an API and plugs in to other platforms. They’re already baked into Microsoft’s Skype, Facebook Messenger, Rakuten Viber, Slack, and others, meaning users there don’t have to download anything or learn new functionality. Just search, find and share.
Let’s say you’re chatting with friends on Facebook Messenger and also watching a football game. If your team scores an amazing touchdown, that clip could instantly be available for you to share in your messaging app.
Likewise, if you’re posting to your BTS fan blog while watching the performance live online, you can create and share micro-moments from the show right to your blog for your readers to enjoy and share.
Man I spend it like some party
Watch & share this BTS – GoGo video clip in your texts, tweets and comments. Find and share the best video clips and quotes on Vlipsy.
Vlipsy isn’t trying to create a new destination for you to sit back and watch video content, as they’ve recognized that other platforms have already created these spaces. What they’re trying to do is make it as fast and as easy as possible for you to share the highlights.
If Vlipsy is successful and is adopted by more chat and social platforms, it will create a new format in the video landscape. We’d have long-form, short-form, stories and – vlips. Content creators are always seeking new ways to reach audiences so there may be exciting opportunities for the platform to build commercial products, taking sponsored video out to audiences.
Photo credit: The feature image has been done by StockSnap.
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