The 5 Main Reasons Why Peach Failed.
So you’re all familiar with Princess Peach right? About yay-high, covered in pink and always in trouble?
Well there’s a new Peach in town and this one, according to recent articles, might need saving too…Mario!?
Peach was launched earlier in January and was quickly hyped by media as the must have social app.
Imagine Tumblr and Twitter got frisky in the PA’s office at the Christmas party and Facebook was recording from a peephole. Well that’s basically what Peach is.
As you know the media is quick to hype a lot of things up, most of which certainly don’t deserve it.
I’m not saying Peach is a bad app but it’s competing with similar platforms that already have commercial success and really this peach is going to fall from the branch and rot
….Harsh? Possibly, but take a look at these five reasons why Peach failed and then reconsider.
1. Frigid Friendships.
Finding friends is a chore. The app notifies you upon starting that Peach becomes fun with at least 3 friends. Okay but how do I find them? Without a direct username you can’t add your friends. It does allow you to search your address book but what about people who communicate heavily through Facebook messenger or Twitter?
Importing friends from other social networks is such a common feature nowadays it’s expected. For an app developed by the founder of Vine this seems like an oversight.
The only tactic I could possibly suggest is that Peach is being hailed as Gen Z kindling. Gen Z have grown up with mobile phones, perhaps they assume target users will have all their friends numbers saved in their phone and as such can make heavy use of their address import function?
I feel this mentality is continued in the “Friends of Friends” section of the app. The closest Peach has to a user search function. Gen Z are young, young people form cliques, is allowing only friends of friends to appear another tactic to keep the target Gen Z users engaged by restricting connections to those within their social circles?
2. Recycled and Rehashed.
Again being suggested as an app targeted towards Gen Z, the use of GIFs was somewhat praised as if Peach had discovered some form of galactic translator that would allow people to communicate with this younger mysterious generation.
GIFs have been round round baby round round, to quote Sugababes circa ’02. Just take a quick look at Tumblr and you’ll have so many GIFs in your face you won’t know what real life is anymore. Even Facebook has incorporated GIFs into their messenger service.
So don’t praise lack of innovation please.
The profile page is reminiscent of Twitter and the ability to draw with your finger has turned many a snapchat user into a wannabe Van Gogh.
There is nothing new here.
3. Constricted Comments.
There is an almost brick walled dynamic of interacting with friends on Peach. Having befriended some random internet users (who had some great Real Housewives of Beverly Hills GIFs adorning their profiles) I was eager to tag and share stupid pop-culture GIFs of a reality star hissing over a pumpkin spice latter….. who wouldn't?! But this isn't as fun when there is no real steady stream of commenting available.
Sure you can comment under a profiles post but only with text. What if I wanted to respond to a dog being held out of a car window pretending to fly with a cat dressed as a shark sitting on a Roomba? Important question.
Someone shares a Facebook status you find funny, you want to convey this feeling, you comment with a picture of Adele laughing her infectiously hearty laugh.
Someone shares a status on Peach.. you describe this feeling using the best of your writing prowess?
…….I choose Adele (who wouldn't?!)
4. Prohibited Peeping.
How many times have you sat at your desk in work, stared at the computer screen and agreed with yourself that 5 minutes scrolling through the Facebook newsfeed is just what you need before you tackle that report?
Have you ever seen a news report and immediately jumped on to twitter to search for more information and watched as the real time information pours through your screen?
We ingest so much media and content nowadays why would Peach restrict this? Especially with (yes key term of this piece) Gen Z having grown with this media-munching mentality. Instead you must tap into each friends individual profile and either scroll through until you have read all the current updates and tap into the next profile or simply fall back and chose another user.
Not ideal, let us peep Peach let us peep!
By trying to differ themselves from their “newsfeed” counterparts Peach has shot itself in the foot (or would thumb be better suited?)
5. Strict sharing.
Anybody who is anybody has a Facebook profile, a Twitter account, an Instagram. Within each of these apps we can find friends through our other social media accounts. A useful, expected feature right? Apparently Peach didn't feel the same way.
Peach does not let you share content to any other social platform. None. When I tap to share my recent post it appears in my messages to be sent in text form or by email. What Gen Z emails!?
I feel like in the todays tech climate an app should incorporate certain universal features, allowing users to adapt quicker and allowing the app to percolate through the masses sooner.
One of the fun things of social media and a key for marketing purposes is the ability to share across platforms. This increases awareness and draws in more users. Just take a look at vine, it lets you share across platforms. Just ask Silento who owes much of his fame to this feature.
I have a sneaky suspicion Peach does not allow social sharing yet because by opening up the Peachy gates people may realise quicker that everything Peach has to offer is already out there.
Now listen the above may seem like I’ve taken an axe to the Peach tree, chopped it down, stamped on every piece of fruit and then set fire to the wooden carcass..which I may have?
But I feel like there needs to be innovation when creating apps nowadays. Something new, unique. Something that even if it has been done before is now better and bolder and without it your life is over!
When I first downloaded Peach I was so excited because I felt like it incorporated all the aspects of the current social media big dogs that I enjoyed. Unfortunately the app failed to live up to my expectations and this coming from the founder of vine!?
But I can’t speak for everyone and I’m sure there are people out there getting hooked on Peach’s juice. However coming from a marketing perspective, if the app isn't successful it can’t and wont be a successful marketing tool.
If you’ve enjoyed this please share, or if you have a friend who is hooked on Peach let them read this and ask them to get in touch and see if they can sway my mind (I'm a sucker for a good Real housewives GIF so make sure to mention that!)
Find me on twitter: @jpflynn
