Mobile Fix: Evolving video, the death of apps and Uber
In his latest Mobile Fix, Simon Andrews, founder of Addictive!, takes a look at how video is evolving, whether it’s the end for apps and more on Uber’s latest development into the grocery delivery space.
One of the key themes for mobile and tech is video and our thoughts last week resonated with quite a few people – and someone pointed us to this fascinating celebration of unboxing videos. This development of the very popular haul videos – where people show off the results of their shopping trip – can be a little dull, but the toys videos from Disney Collector are staggeringly popular amongst toddlers (and their parents) with this unboxing of a Play Doh toy getting 45 million views.
The scale of video can be surprising – for example over half of 18-24s in the US use Snapchat – and its rapid growth suggests it may go mainstream. With that sort of scale brands have been quick to find ways to use it and Snapchat are now out selling to agencies focusing on Snapchat discovery.
This new service lets media brands share their content on the platform – with the MailOnline a likely early partner. This is the pitch deck they are using, which gives great insight into the platform.
As we said last week the rate of innovation is astounding in this space and we see Vine has made a major move in allowing people to use their own videos as Vines now. Previously you had to create your six second video using the Vine app if you wanted to use the Vine distribution (although there were some hacks to get around this). As ever creativity flourishes where there are restrictions and we have seen some great examples.
Now you can just take any video and share it, will that water down the experience? Time will tell, but the danger is that brands just repurpose existing film and we would think that will tend not to work as well – but it will be popular with brands. Vine have also improved their desktop experience as they encourage people to explore the content.
Instagram allowed this importing of video some time back and with a 15 second duration – the same as the standard US TV commercial – they have been popular with brands. They are now looking to monetise this with a new advertising chief.
Of course not everyone wants ads around their videos and Snapchat, Vine and Instagram now face the dilemma of getting the balance right. The people who have been most effective at monetising video is YouTube and it’s rumoured they are about to offer an ad free version – getting the funding instead from users through a subscription service designed around music.
The end for Apps?
In anticipation of the latest version of Deloitte’s 2014 Mobile report (due in early September) lots of press jumped on the stat that a third of smartphone owners don’t download any apps in a typical month.
Coupled with stories showing few app developers make any money, the general view seems to be that the app party is over. The FT takes a more reasoned look and points to the Apple research showing the impact of apps on the European economy, claiming it’s created over 500,000 jobs.
We agree that people have already got most of the apps they want or need and it’s only the tech crowd who rush around downloading Swarm or Yo. But apps that do solve a real problem are still being launched – it’s just that the distribution model is broken as the bloated app stores hide the new amongst the million apps.
Just like music, books and films, apps are now a hit business and, as people from those industries know, it’s pretty much impossible to predict what will be a hit. So everyone tries to game the system and/or spends a fortune on advertising.
It’s surprising that Google have yet to leverage their expertise in search on the Play store, but perhaps the new iPhone launch will give Apple a way to sort their app store. The rumoured new form factor will drive smart app developers to adapt their apps to fit the bigger screen, whilst most of the Zombie apps won’t be updated.
So an Apple version of the PlayStore approach of showing only apps that are compatible with your device could be a help for users and developers. Do read the full FT piece as its full on useful insight.
Taxi wars
It’s a little surprising that an industry as old and unsophisticated as taxis has emerged as a key battle ground for tech. But in many cities around the world there is a battle going on.
In China there is something of a ceasefire, as Alibaba and Tencent scale back the massive incentives they were giving drivers to encourage use of their taxi apps. At one point these reached 100RMB – five times the typical fare. This caused all the drivers to stop driving around and just wait for an app request, meaning it was virtually impossible to get a taxi without using one of the apps. We also heard of people being thrown out of a cab so the driver could take a more lucrative app booking.
Of course the end game isn’t about the cab ride; in China the taxi apps were a Trojan horse for BAT to acquire users for their other services such as mobile payments and chat.
In the West the end game isn’t quite as clear but it seems likely home delivery and e-commerce will be critical. Uber are testing Corner Store in Washington DC, where users can request that an Uber driver deliver anything from Pampers to Popcorn – for a fixed price. There is a lot of action around delivery right now and we know WunWun are working with GetTaxi in some US cities. The NY Times has a good look at this space reminding us of Kozmo etc from dotcom boom days.
It’s clear that the taxi firms are a factor in the new model and the new API from Uber is an open invitation to start-ups to build in an Uber partnership. The first round of partners is more traditional – Open Table, Hotels and Airlines – but anyone can use the API. But if you do use the API, you have to agree not to use any other Taxi firm – so it’s another angle on the land-grab going on across the major cities of the world.
And with the Google Ventures’ investment in Uber, transport (and eventually delivery?) is part of the vertical stack. In Google maps Uber is now offered as a choice of transport when looking for directions. Will we see GetTaxi, Hailo and Addison Lee in there at some time in the future? Perhaps.
The next episode of delivery will be around groceries – where all those Amazon vans trundling around the streets should enable Amazon to offer same day delivery of Amazon Prime. Could they decide to invest in one of the Taxi firms to accelerate that? Some think the economics of grocery will prove a problem for Amazon so cabs could be a cheaper option?
This is an edited and abridged version of Mobile Fix – click here to read the full article on Addictive!’s website
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