Viddy's CMO Evan White
iMedia Connection: How has winning iMedia's Next Wave competition affected Viddy? What have you been up to since?
Evan White: When Viddy won the iMedia Next Wave competition, we had only been available in the app store for six months. It was an exciting moment for us, as we were given recognition by some of the most influential individuals in the advertising space. Since October, we have been prioritizing our product and community and have grown an active, creative network of Viddyographers around the globe.
iMedia: At October's Breakthrough Summit, you said that Viddy had accrued more than 800,000 downloads. What kind of numbers are you seeing now?
White: To date, Viddy has 26 million registered users and adding 1 million new registered users daily. The user growth has been fast over the past year; it took eight months to hit 1 million, and now we are at 26 million after 13 months.
iMedia: With so many competing social mobile applications, how does Viddy stand out? What does Viddy offer that others don't?
White: Viddy truly is the easiest way for someone to capture, beautify, and share video content. With the touch of a finger, Viddy users can make their life moments by editing, adding a filter and music, and then quickly sharing that video with their friends and family via email, text, Facebook, or Twitter.
iMedia: Viddy has been backed by some big-name celebrity influencers. Any exciting names you want to drop?
White: Viddy is backed by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, Omniture founder Josh James, Skull Candy chairman Jeff Kearl, Roc Nation (the record label and entertainment company co-founded by Jay-Z), Overbrook Entertainment (founded by Will Smith and manager James Lassiter), ShoeDazzle founder Brian Lee, and professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek, among others. We also have a lot of celebrity users including: Snoop Dogg, Bill Cosby, Katie Couric, Linkin Park, T-Pain, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jamie Kennedy, Lennox Lewis, Warren Sapp, Michael Strahan, and Jimmie Johnson.
iMedia: During the last summit, you touched on working with Disney to promote its 2011 film "The Muppets." Tell me about how that partnership ended up taking shape.
White: Disney was looking for creative ways to promote the film, and Viddy was one of the many social media tools they decided to use as part of that effort. The partnership allowed for Viddy's user base to add one to 10 Muppet's characters to mobile videos. In the first month alone, we saw over 20,000 Muppet Viddys created.
iMedia: You have described Viddy as the Instagram of video. What needs to happen for Viddy to achieve Instagram-like success?
White: We are focused on improving our product every day and providing a better experience for the community. We want to build a good business, so we'll continue to seek marquis partners who will drive forward our mission and help us to iterate on the Viddy product and platform.
