This “about page” for Snap Inc has been edited by me. Let’s see if you can spot the difference.
So Snap Inc acquires Houseparty and Quibi? Well, that’s what my nightmarish dream told me the other night.
But as I made my morning coffee from La Terza it hit me that maybe this could work? Hear me out.
Setting the table
Snap
Snap is a “camera” company, but at their core, they are focused on bringing people together through the power of the mobile phone. Snap’s innovation has been around creating “stories” for your friends, your family, and your fans.
Houseparty
Houseparty is built on a similar premise to Snap. It wants you to chat, cheer, and play with your friends and family — all in realtime. Yes, you can leave video messages to friends, but its main focus is experiencing life, together. Games, quizzes, and now live concerts and short-films. The ethos of Houseparty plays well with the mission of Snap.
Quibi
It’s really hard to say what Quibi is focused on at this point. Is it Netflix for the mobile world and for the folks with short attention spans? Who knows. What we do know is that it has some traction, folks are complaining about it, and it has a great “team” behind the product.
With the right leadership in place to drive the strategy and market capitalization, Quibi could actually make it out all right.
What needs to happen
The integration between Snap and Houseparty needs to become immediately apparent. It’s already intact now with Houseparty requiring users to have a Snapchat account to edit your profile and add a profile image. I guess it’s a simple way for Houseparty to have “validation” for their users — since Snap has that built-in.
Snap needs to enable “Start Houseparty” directly within Snapchat. Snap should allow users who don’t have Houseparty installed on their device to use some of the same functionality in Snapchat.
Snap needs better curation of their original content directly in Snapchat or directly in Quibi. I’ve watched and subscribed to some of the shows Snapchat is trying to force-feed me and they’re okay… I think Quibi has better positioning to produce original content that I’d want to watch on my phone. The kicker is this: Quibi isn’t great and their content is average at best. And, users don’t want to watch “TV” style content on their mobile phone. We want to watch Youtube and TikTok style content on our phones, not the next episode of “The Office”. Understanding the content difference could make all the difference.
It’s still unclear, in this hypothetical situation, if Quibi should continue to exist as a standalone app or move all of the content into Houseparty. Houseparty has recently made the move towards simultaneous viewing of content with friends and with that change, Quibi could be the perfect match. Especially since the content is 10 minutes or less per episode.
In short, Houseparty consumes Quibi content and adds a watch tab — enabling you to watch content with your loved ones at scheduled times. Snapchat then creates more cross-app touchpoints with Houseparty to enable the group effect that Houseparty thrives on. And for those more intimate or silly moments, that you want to keep a little more private, Snapchat continues to shine.
As always, thanks for reading!
- Corey