So what is Pheed?
In short, think of it as Twitter, with a business plan. We always hear of “the-next-greatest-idea” social network that thinks it has what it takes to compete with the likes of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or Instagram. Yet we also see big brands like Myspace or Google+ struggling to get in the game. So what makes Pheed any different? Why won't this site crash and burn after a short run of attention, like so many others?
Pheed is a self-made and self-funded startup, which operates out of a rented six-acre mansion on Mulholland Drive, sort of frat house meets R&D facility. Somehow, the startup got over 200 taste-makers and celebs to sign up for the site—and quickly! Pheed only launched a few days ago and has already hit over 350,000 unique visitors. All this without their much-needed iPhone app, which is currently pending approval.
Pheed’s Secret Sauce:
It’s pretty simple, if you allow influencers to charge for content, high quality content will be produced. Pheed enables users to share all forms of digital content, including text, photo, audio, video, and live broadcasts. “Pheeders” then have the option to share for free or at a premium, either by applying a monthly subscription fee to their channel or setting up a pay-per-view live broadcast event. Users can charge anywhere from $1.99 to $34.99 per view, or $1.99 to $34.99 per month. In both cases, the user selects their own pricing and owns all of the content. Pheed makes money by taking half of the revenue, which covers bandwidth and storage, payment processing, and of course, Pheed's profits.
The folks at Pheed see a lot of problems with current social networks --namely, the fact that users are somewhat limited on Twitter, or bored of Facebook. There’s just too much noise, and that means most of the content quality is poor. Because of this, people become focused on gaining followers rather than using the platforms for what they’re actually meant to do: share quality content.
O.D. Kobo, Pheed CEO and co-founder, who is a veteran in the game of creating successful online ventures, thinks that it is time to introduce quality content online by giving the power and platform directly to the content providers. He believes that if the option to monetize is there, users will be motivated to create quality content. Whether that’s concerts from someone’s living room or studio, comedy stand-up from the kitchen, interviews on pay-per-view, or a boxing match, there is no limit to what users can do and earn.
Miley Cyrus recently launched her own Pheed, and her audio recording drew 10,000 visitors to the site in just half a second. To me, Pheed is akin to the bonus footage that comes with a DVD—if fans really care about the celebrity, influencer, or content producer enough that they’d pay to see their private or exclusive content, Pheed will be a win-win for both the fan and the celeb.
The big question is: how many of Paris Hilton's 8.9 million Twitter followers or David Guetta’s 35 million Facebook fans will actually pay to view an event or subscribe to their content?
Time will tell. Pheed has a good opportunity to succeed if it stays focused and doesn’t try to become a jack-of-all-trades. For now, it’s safe to say Pheed is a site we should all keep an eye on—its Twitter-with-a-business-model approach stands to seriously impact the social media game.
