Is Pheed the next big social media "thing"?
The social media niche is a crowded one. We have Facebook, Twitter and maybe even Google Plus at the top, specialized and popular networks like Instagram or Pinterest, and many niche-based social networking sites such as LinkedIn as well. A new competitor into the field has to offer something that others do not for even a slight chance of success.
I have to admit that I never heard about Pheed until yesterday when a friend of mine who is working for a large Internet company mentioned it in chat. When you visit the Pheed website you will notice immediately that it differs from all the other social networking site you have been on in the past.
The background image of a heavily tattooed and pierced person is certainly different, and while it may keep the older generation out, it certainly has its appeal to a younger audience.
Pheed is currently available as a web-based service and in form of an application for Apple's iPhone, with an Android app coming in the near future.
Once you have signed up, you can do so with the help of Facebook or Twitter, you are taken by the hand for a short while before you are taken to your stream on the site.
I do not want to go and review all the features the site makes available in detail, because that is frankly pretty boring. What I'd like to do instead is tell you a bit about the differences to other social networking sites so that you can decide for yourself if this is something that you may be interested in trying out.
- Subscriptions - Every user on Pheed can create subscription based events or channels. This may be a broadcast, a channel that is regularly posting great contents or photos. Subscribers who want to access that content can do so by paying a subscription fee which is shared between the channel owner and the site itself. Subscriptions, which range from $1.99 to $34.99 per month, are only one option to monetize the content. It is also possible to charge per view, for instance for live broadcasts.
- Different formats - You can post text, video and photos to Pheed, but also do live broadcasts or upload audio-only clips.
- Facebook and Twitter integration - Most social networking sites keep to themselves. Pheed enables you to update your Facebook status or post a new message to Twitter right from its site. You can also like or tweet any post that you stumble upon.
- Users own their content - Many social networking sites use the content that users generate for monetization. On Pheed, users own the copyright to content that they upload or generate on the site.
Pheed introduces features that other social networking sites do not make available which certainly makes the service attractive to a larger audience. Especially the "owning the content you create" and the monetization options need to be mentioned in this regard. I can see subscriptions work really well for users with a large following as well as for broadcasters.
Have you tried Pheed yet? If so, what is your first impression of the service?
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I think you answered yourself when saying that “I never heard about Pheed until yesterday” :)
Since you can sign with facebook and twitter credinals, i don’t think that Pheed has any future; they are trying to build their success on these two networks so it means it’s rather aggregator than self, independent social network.
Thanks for the review but it all sounds a bit complicated. Also, I do not like those heavily tattooed fellas!
You can only be somewhat successful when you only focus on mobile device users. It could very well make money, be popular, etc, but it would never be as big, as widely used, or popular as Facebook, Twitter etc that is accessible to anyone using any browser, device, etc.
I like the idea of Pheed, but are Internet users in general ready to pay for content? I don’t think, culturally, we are there yet, but I imagine it will become more acceptable to do so in a decade or so’s time when people will crying out for some kind of editorship over all the content that’s in their reach.
I hope it’s a success, as it could be a model that will well serve creative and content producers.
Well you can still subscribe to free channels only, so it serves all types of users.
As it turns out almost six years later, no Pheed was not the next big thing ;-)