The number of social media platform has
increased significantly in the last 2 years and one of the most recent is Path.
Path was launched in November 2010 (Not too long ago) by a former Facebook
employer, Dave Morin. Path is basically a social-networking platform
which enables of photo sharing and messaging for mobile devices. It is
interesting to see that while Facebook continues to face trouble in translating its
success into the mobile platform, Path is simply ignoring websites and focusing
their company entirely in the mobile realm. Why do they focus on mobile
platform? After being asked on an interview, Morin said that there are 5
billion mobile subscribers and only 1 billion desktop in the world, so the
mobile era is here.
Path also limits each user’s social network
to 150 friends and therefore it is an intimate way to share the stuff that you
like without broadcasting it to wide range audiences like on Facebook or
Twitter. However, there is still an option for you to synchronize your Path
account with your Facebook, Twitter or Foursquare account. In addition, when asked about the
reason behind limiting the number of friend that each user might have, Morin
said that this is based on research by Oxford University professor, RobinDunbar who reveals that the number of social relationships that our brain can
handle is only 150.
Introducing: Path
As Facebook has become more and more
popular, don’t you think that sometimes Facebook is overused by displaying
advertising, events or photos that we actually don’t care about? This is where
Path becomes a refreshing alternative for us. Based on Morin’s interview on CNBC, He said that as per June 2012,
Path has more than 3 million users and Path is expected to experience a
significant growth in the future.
Path Has Some Pretty Solid Ratings in Apple's App Store
Through its commitment and innovation, do you think that it is possible for Path to gain more number of users than Facebook in terms of
mobile platform? Leave your thoughts here.
Cheers,
Ivan
I have been using path for more than half years... and the friends i had till now are 4! how pathetic i am but i had more than 700 friends on facebook. i could only say path is so not popular and the intimacy (150 friends) given, can't really get your word spread quick and wide, so therefore, i think path still has to work on its functionality!
ReplyDeleteHi Sophie,
DeleteHow's your experience of using Path? Do you like it? You can add me too :p
I agree with your opinion that says Path has not been really popular but I am sure sooner or later, Path will gain its popularity among the mobile users.
Regarding the intimacy, you are absolutely correct. Beside being its advantage, intimacy also becomes its disadvantage and I suppose Path is not a good way for a company to promote its product.
Hi Ivan
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of Path so thanks for the introduction. I'll definitely give it a go... but I think that Sophie has identified the key challenge with Path. FB is still so dominant (and I only access FB on my mobile) it will be difficult to convert users to Path.