We don’t usually write about individual Facebook applications when they launch (there are thousands of them, and most of them are poorly made), but Animoto’s is worth taking a look at. It cleanly and simply makes use of Facebook’s data and distribution, to bring its core strength — making good slide shows — to users.
Last August, the San Francisco company launched a slide-show widget creator that lets you upload your photos and add songs from its collection or your own (our coverage). It creates a video out of the photos and music, where the photos flash and twirls the photos in time with the music, so you get an engaging experience — a more sophisticated offering than what leading slide-show creators Slide and RockYou offer. Even though you can embed videos into other sites, the company isn’t satisfied with its growth rate to date.
So here’s why the company’s new application may have stronger legs. First, you install the application, then select between 10 and 15 photos from your photo albums on Facebook and add your preferred music track. (This is a smart move, because Facebook is the number one photo sharing site on the web, according to comScore, with more than 14 million photos uploaded daily — it’s where the photos are.)
Second, Animoto’s Facebook application generates the slideshow video — and it also identifies who else was tagged in the photos you included in the slideshow. These people receive notifications of the video through Facebook. This is an easy mechanism for viral growth that Animoto doesn’t have a way to offer on its own site.
While the average VentureBeat reader may not find this application meaningful, imagine a college dorm that wants to commemorate a formal dance, or roommates that want to reminisce over a going-away party at a local bar, which is what I made mine about (screenshot below; unfortunately the company doesn’t offer embed code of its Facebook video, presumably because Facebook doesn’t let you remove your photos from Facebook).
Try it for yourself here. The company gave us an early look and will formally launch the application on Monday.
3 Comments
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kev said:
animoto has no traffic because they’re trying to pursue a saturated vertical. slide and rockyou target myspace teens with glitter themes, animoto tries to make animated movies that rarely work. who are they for?
go try out their site, chances are whatever you try to make on it won’t work, and your videos/music will crash.
i know animoto is in beta (like any real web2.0 company aims to be), but come on it’s like ricky bobby in talledega nights, when he keeps saying something offensive “with all due respect.” just because he says all due respect, doesn’t make it right. animoto getting press coverage doesn’t make it right, neither does it’s disfunctional product. animoto is in pre-alpha, with no real point or hope (maybe i’m wrong). with so many “important” and “prominent” and “experienced” people behind animoto, it sure took them a long time to get this facebook app.
follow the alexa traffic pattern, the site has had a roller coaster of a ride, probably because 1) it doesn’t really work 2) its pr firm took breaks in between the months 3) because it takes more than a facebook app to be successful.
almost every top site on the internet didn’t need a facebook app to get where it is today (that includes slide, rockyou, digg, etc.) now animoto has to compete with 10,000 other apps and jump on the facebook bandwagon to keep media junkies and investors and/or potential investors in line with the buzz words. woo.
when will there be a animoto iphone app?
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johnny said:
nice eric—
thanks for putting together the k.buddy farewell video. we’ll have to make another one when he returns!
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Eric Eldon said:
kev, i wrote the article specifically because i thought the company did an unusually nice job making use of facebook’s platform.
yes, i did actually create a video — did you see the screenshot of it?
