Viddy Receives $30 Million Funding, Rivals Socialcam For Mobile Audience

YouTube definitely missed the boat on this one. Mobile video applications, such as Socialcam and Viddy, are making a splash into the industry with easy video sharing mobile communities. Aspiring artists once turned to YouTube in search of their big break, but now the likes of Justin Bieber and parents exploiting their children for a moment of fame are turning to mobile video applications Socialcam and Viddy. Since these networks are not nearly as oversaturated as YouTube, they might even have a chance. Socialcam has soared to the top of Apple’s App Store this week with more than 36 million downloads, and Viddy is a close runner up with over 27 million downloads. But on Friday, Viddy announced their $30 million in funding, challenging their Socialcam competition and exemplifying the rapid-fire growth of these mobile video applications. Viddy’s $30 million in funding comes from investors including NEA, Goldman Sachs, Khosla Ventures, and Battery Ventures. The battle to become the next “Instagram for video” is heating up. The main difference between Socialcam and Viddy is the length of the video. Viddy limits uploads to 15 seconds, while Socialcam has no time constraints. This may be why Socialcam seemed to attract more users than Viddy, although Socialcam’s recent dominance may be due to some questionable business strategies. How has the start-up Socialcam soared to the top of the App Store? Well, in order to watch Socialcam videos on Facebook, you are required to sign up for the Socialcam app. These inactive accounts probably make up many of the 36 million downloads. It also seems as through Socialcam is pumping up usage by injecting old popular YouTube videos into the app disguised as Socialcam generated content. Viddy CEO Brett O'Brien praises Viddy as, “100 percent user-generated,” calling to attention Socialcam’s lack of ingenuity. Quite frankly, I do not appreciate the way Socialcam bullies me into signing up for their application and then sharing all my activities on Facebook.  It feels like a trick and combined with the app playing off YouTube videos as if they are their own, Socialcam feels all too fishy to me.  You would think the creators understood the value of authenticity for social networks before pulling a fast one on all its users.