The year of the micro video- why BeBirBal is a micro video app

I didn’t event the concept of the micro video, far from it. Vine and Instagram have been about for a year or so and have been met with great success by users. So why would BeBirBal dare take on the might of these 2 established apps?

It’s my feeling that micro videos will significantly grow as a trend because people are recording more and more videos with their phone and not putting it to any use. Popular apps are encouraging video uploads like Snapchat, Facebook messenger and shortly, iMessage when iOS8 is released. What it means is that people will have an abundance of video content on their phone and importantly, likely to be around 15 seconds in length that they’ll want to put to use. There’s stats to back this:

• Two-thirds of the world’s mobile data traffic will be videos by 2017

A step further than that is to make the videos social, people are already in the habit of sharing their photos, next will be their videos. BeBirBal has taken the social aspect and added another ingredient, competitiveness. Instagram is a great social picture and video app but according to research Iundertook users told me it’s not only a way to follow friends and brands but interestingly, also to show off. I know when I look at my profile I see a Monaco jet setter living a great life not the truth which is a man sitting at a desk every day who does a couple of fun things now and again! BeBirBal will be a place where people can out do their friends, not merely bragging rights but also sporting skills, silly acts and so on. Videos far more than pictures, will encourage this type of interaction

• Instagram videos are creating two-thirds more engagement than Instagram photo

Furthermore, its now easier to build an app that supports video. When I tried to build BeBirBal last year it was costly and complicated. But now we can build off the back of platforms that increases the speed of upload and distribution and Amazon’s capabilities are far greater. Significantly also, video is notoriously slow to load on a phone and considering the user will leave if it does not start within 2 seconds, speed is imperative. 4G is quickly becoming widely available in the UK, thankfully catching up with the US, which will help load speeds. Furthermore, larger screen sizes whether it be the upcoming iPhone 6 or the latest Samsung Galaxy, will increase the user experience of viewing a video on the go.

It’s these elements that make the growth of micro-videos an inevitability, in my mind! Do you agree and do you have any evidence for and against this forecast?