Pheed, currently the #1 Free Social Media App in the App store, ahead of Facebook and Twitter is taking the Internet and the app world by storm. In addition to the app, Pheed also has a website with all of the same features.
Image from Forbes.com
Pheed was launched in October, 2012 and its popularity has continued to grow ever since. Highlighted by its very smooth, sleek interface, Pheed allows you to share text, photos, audio clips, video and live broadcasts. It really is a combination of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and sites like UStream that let you do live broadcasts. Pheed has become popular partly because of the early adoption by celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Miley Cyrus and Mike Tyson. These celebrities have promoted the site to their fans on other social sites where they are popular. In addition to being popular with celebrities, Pheed is also the number one Social App among teens! Teens with HUGE followings on Instagram and Twitter have been talking about Pheed non-stop!
Copyrighting Pheeds
Screenshot of the Pheed App by Jackie Barr.
One of the most interesting concepts that I found with Pheed is that you have the ability to copyright any of your posts, no matter the medium. For me, this is huge because I feel like so much of the original content created on the Internet and on social media sites is stolen by others who claim that it’s their own. I really like this copyright feature because it encourages Pheed users to create ORIGINAL CONTENT. Who would have thought people could think up things on their own!? While there is a copyright feature, you have the ability to “Remix” other people’s post, which is the same concept as share on Facebook or retweet on twitter. With remixes, if a user copyrights a post, it will credit them with being the creator of the content. In addition to remixing, users can search for Pheeds through hashtags and “Love” or “Heartache” (dislike) individual Pheeds.
Monetize?
Pheed users also have the ability to charge for people to subscribe to their channels by paying a fixed monthly fee anywhere from $1.99-$34.99. Pheed CEO, O.D. Kobo spoke with Mashable and said that he hopes will only take off once Pheed has gained “critical mass.” He thinks charging for content is a huge responsibility which he doesn’t want users to exploit until they’ve really mastered the power Pheed offers. This also plays into the business-side of Pheed, as the content creators take 50% of the revenue, which covers bandwidth and storage, and payment processing.
Channel Ratings
Screenshot of Pheed App by Jackie Barr.
Adding to all of these other great features, Pheed also allows you to rate your own channel G, PG, PG13 or R. This rating system is a great way to limit the content that kids on the site have the ability to see. You’ll be able to see that a channel is rated R you may want to proceed with caution! Also, users have to be sure to make their content synonymous to the rating that they give their channel.
The Future
In the future, I could see celebrities or musicians using Pheed as a monetized social network to create exclusive content that can only be seen on Pheed. Live broadcasts can also be monetized as well, which I can see being used by YouTube celebrities such as iJustine or Shane Dawson who really love doing live shows to interact with their massive online following. Although the ability to charge for content is a pretty inventive idea, I really don’t see users being willing to pay for content when content is free on every other mainstream social media site. Kobo explained this to Digitaltrends.com by saying, “I created the monetization because people, as content creators, have not been incentivized by the Internet to create content for it.” The idea of increased content standards has the possibility to lead to higher quality posts that will have a lot more value than a typical tweet or Facebook post.
My Opinion
Overall, I like Pheed. Even though it combines many different social networks, I think it’s different and unique. While Pheed isn’t quite there yet, it’s potential is limitless. If you aren’t already a “Pheeder” you should try it out and see what you think!
Are you on Pheed? What do you think of it? Do you see it as revolutionary or just another social media site you have to worry about? I’d love to hear in the comments below, tweet me @JoeyCreighton.
