A new version of Twitvid has been unveiled, and it has a familiar vibe about it. It’s got some similarities to the recently redesigned YouTube.
One of the main differences between what TwitVid is doing and what YouTube is doing is that YouTube is all YouTube videos, and TwitVid is videos from all kinds of providers.
TwitVid claims over 12 million uniques a month, including celebrities, and as a spokesperson put it, “has social at their core (not search like YouTube).” This is significant, when you consider that YouTube’s recent changes make the service more like a traditional social network, with the subscription and news feed format. It’s basically like a video version of Twitter. Follow the channels you like, and see them in your timeline.
TwitVid has probably been thought of by most people as a way to post videos to share on Twitter. That’s certainly what the name implies, bu the company says it’s looking to expand beyond its original model. It wants to be looked upon as a social video network built on an open network.
CEO Mo Adham tells WebProNews it’s “a natural progression” of their service, and one that reflects a growing online trend where people are consuming more information that is pushed to them, taking away a little bit of the search habit. You can see this a bit in Nielsen’s survey about popular Android apps. Facebook trumps Google search across all ages surveyed.
And speaking of Facebook, that is a big part of what sets TwitVid apart from YouTube. What YouTube is doing is more about Google+, Adham says. “So far, I don’t think they pose any threat, because we’re directly integrated with Twitter and Facebook.”
If you want to log in to TwitVid, you can use your Twitter or Facebook ID. With YouTube, you’re logging in with your Google account.
“The other thing is the community,” saysAdham, referring to all of the “nonsense” IDs in use on YouTube, and the comments that these breed. He implied that with Facebook and Twitter IDs, there is a greater sense of community and real people not hiding behind fake names.
Another thing TwitVid does better than YouTube, is that it plays videos right from the feed. You don’t have to click away from your stream and go to a separate video page.
The new TwitVid will rollout on the web first. The new functionality will come to the mobile apps later.
Adham tells us TwitVid is also looking into its TV strategy. “The TV is going to be super important for us,” he said. Whether that means Xbox, Google TV, Roku, Samsung, etc. he says they’ll be exploring opportunities.
Here’s a separate interview we did with Adham about the news:
