Is group movie talk the next big Facebook trend, From the Grapevine
Is group movie talk the next big Facebook trend?
The Houseparty app has skyrocketed in latest months, and the social media giant has taken notice.
by Benyamin Cohen | Thursday, August 17, 2017
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Saturday evening is approaching, and you and your friends are attempting to figure out what to do. Should you go to a bar? Maybe catch a fresh superhero movie at the multiplex? Or perhaps check out that fresh Mediterranean restaurant in town?
Until now, these conversations might have taken place over a group text with everybody weighing in. But what if there was an effortless way to use your phone to have a live group movie call with your friends? Moreover, what if you didn’t have to plan the talk, but just always had a virtual room available where people can pop in and out? That’s the point of Houseparty, an app which has been on the market for about a year, and is just now picking up steam. As one reporter described, "it lets puny groups of friends drop into a movie conversation as if dangling out in a dorm room."
Very first, here’s a movie explaining how Houseparty works:
The app is attracting angel investors from across Silicon Valley due to its prestigious pedigree. It’s the brainchild of Ben Rubin, the 29-year-old wunderkind behind the popular Meerkat app. The Israeli tech entrepreneur’s showstopping Meerkat app was the darling of the two thousand fifteen South by Southwest festival. It was one of the very first apps to popularize live streaming movies, but when Facebook and Twitter copied the idea, Meerkat evolved into Houseparty. The fresh app is more focused on movie talks for groups instead of broadcasting it to the world. (This is not to be confused with Slip, another Israeli tech startup, that concentrates on movie talk messages.)
Houseparty has more than a million monthly users and is presently in the top twenty social networking apps for the iPhone – behind LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
Houseparty co-founder Ben Rubin is a graduate of the Technion Institute in Israel. (Photo: The DEMO Conference/Flickr)
Facebook has taken notice of Houseparty’s success and, according to a latest article in the Wall Street Journal, is planning to release its own group movie talk app this fall called Bonfire. The social network giant, which now boasts two billion monthly active users, is permanently looking for fresh contraptions that encourage more time spent on its platform. An app that permits you and your Facebook friends to host a group movie talk seems like a natural extension.
Facebook is moving aggressively into movie. Earlier this month it launched Observe, its redesigned tab for movie programming. That’s in addition to Facebook Live rivulets, which have become exceedingly popular, racking up millions of views. The Silicon Valley company also plans on rolling out a feature called “go live with a friend,” enabling two people to broadcast together to the public, no matter where they’re located. Think of a split screen treatment you see on cable news and you get the idea.
As for Rubin, he’s taking Facebook’s interest in stride. "I have no problem with the copying," he said. “It’s just business. It’s just a distraction.”
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Benyamin Cohen writes about everything from science to entertainment – and sometimes about dating apps for dogs.