Short video on mobile: the story of 2014?

By Steve Keenan

I was pleasantly surprised to watch a report on BBC Newsnight this week about the rise of video on mobile.

Surprised, because it is a rare to see a report on social media that isn’t about privacy on Facebook, trolling on Twitter or any other slight of SM that is the standard old media angle. It was about technology, and was interesting at that (watch it here, starts 36’42′ in).

The co-founder of YouTube, Chad Hurley, was interviewed. He now works on Mixbit, an app and site that allows users to share bits of video and post. “The MixBit site is the first site that lets users collaborate with each other and remix videos uploaded by the community,” it says.

As we know, there is a proliferation of mobile video apps, from Vine and Intagram to Viddy and Socialcam. Hurley says what has changed since YouTube launched eight years ago is the proliferation of smartphone cameras which allow direct posting to social, bypassing the desktop.

Hence the rush among app developers, and the big boys, to gain users and traction. But no-one is winning yet, apart from maybe Facebook-owned Instagram, which has leveraged its existing users and swamped Vine - if the drop off in my Vine feed is anything to go by.

“No-one really knows the magic formula that will work well for video. In the case of video, no-one has really figured out what the framework is like. Who thought that a year ago, six-second videos (Vine) would be the right way to generate really popular social video sharing?” said Guy Rosen of Onavo Insights.

The eight-minute Newsnight report also featured Directr, which raised $1.1m in funding a year ago and helps users make better videos by creating storyboards. “Video is hard,” says CEO Max Goldman. “It’s not like taking a photo and slapping a filter on it.”

Newsnight postulates the theory that short-form video will be an imperative for commercial companies in the future, which is of course feasible. But with 99% of video being appalling in quality, it’s very interesting to hear about the next generation of apps that emphasise sharing, collaboration and editing to make them better.

I heard this week of an ex-BBC journalist launching courses on how to edit video on an iPhone. Even better. I’ve banged on for the past three years about how video will be the most important aspect of social media - I just hadn’t thought through the mobile video aspects properly. I am now. Thanks Newsnight.