Vine reboot Byte officially launches

guest · Jan 24, 2020

Vine reboot Byte officially launches
January 25, 2020
https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/24/vine-byte/

Two years after Vine’s co-founder Dom Hofmann announced he was building a successor to the short-form video app, today Byte makes its debut on iOS and Android. Byte lets you shoot or upload and then share six-second videos. The tiny time limit necessitates no-filler content that’s denser than the maximum 1-minute clips on TikTok.

Byte comes equipped with standard social features like a feed, Explore page, notifications, and profiles. For now, though Byte lacks the remixability, augmented reality filters, transition effects, and other bonus features you’ll find in apps like TikTok .
What Hofmann hopes will differentiate Byte is an early focus on helping content creators make money — something TikTok, and other micro-entertainment apps largely don’t offer.

Many creators who’ve grown popular on apps like TikTok and Snapchat that lack direct monetization have tried to pull their audiences over to YouTube where they can earn a steady ad-share.
By getting started paying early, Byte might lure some of those dancers, comedians, and pranksters over to its app and be able to retain them long-term.
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very soon, we'll introduce a pilot version of our partner program which we will use to pay creators. byte celebrates creativity and community, and compensating creators is one important way we can support both. stay tuned for more info.
— byte (@byte_app) January 25, 2020

Staying connected with Byte’s most loyal users is another way Hofmann hopes to set his app apart.
“It’s always a bummer when the people behind online services and the people that actually use them are disconnected from one another, so we’re trying out these forums to see if we can do a better job at that” Hofmann writes.
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Now the big question will be whether Byte can take off despite its late start. Between TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and more, do people need another short-form video app? Winning here will require seducing high quality creators who can get bigger view counts elsewhere.
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guest · Jan 27, 2020

TikTok's new competitor Byte from Vine creator focuses on 6-second videos
Byte is Apple's top free iPhone app
January 27, 2020
https://www.abacusnews.com/tech/tik...eator-focuses-6-second-videos/article/3047790

Byte, a new video-sharing app released Friday to compete with ByteDance Inc.’s TikTok, has rocketed to the top of Apple Inc.’s US App Store.
Created by Dom Hofmann, Byte reboots the deprecated Vine video-sharing service, which he co-founded in the summer of 2012 and sold to Twitter Inc. later that year.

Byte “ended Friday as the No. 1 free iPhone app on the US App Store and is still in the top spot,” said Randy Nelson of research firm Sensor Tower. Besides the US, Byte is also the top free iOS app in Canada and ranks in the top 10 in Australia, New Zealand, Norway and the UK.
The timing of Byte’s release coincides with a moment of reckoning for TikTok and its Beijing-based parent company.

[...] Byte is starting off small and its community guidelines make several references to the company’s modest budget. Still, the strong early response to Byte’s arrival -- coming with little to no advance fanfare -- suggests the community that Vine built up remains loyal to the particular six-second format.
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guest · Jan 29, 2020

It Took One Day for Byte to Be As Spammy As the Rest of the Internet
January 27, 2020
https://slate.com/technology/2020/01/byte-vine-spam-ios-android-fake-accounts.html

For more than two years, it’s seemed that a Vine successor was in the works from co-founder Dom Hofmann. Finally, last week, that app arrived. Byte unexpectedly launched on Friday afternoon for iOS and Android … and was almost immediately overrun by spam.

Like the original version of Vine, Byte allows users to film and upload six-second looping videos. The new app will build on its predecessor, though, by offering creators more opportunities to monetize their content and will soon have a pilot program for revenue sharing. It’s this promise of profit that likely attracted spammers to the platform.
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Indeed, shortly after Byte went live, users found that their videos were being flooded by spammy comments requesting follows, which appeared to be coming from automated bots, with phrases like “follow for a follow” and “follow me for old vines.”

[...] former Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos wrote. “If I was a spammer I would register every checkmark Twitter handle to sell or spam later.” A cursory review of Byte accounts revealed that users appear to be squatting on handles that prominent figures like Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos, Taylor Swift, and Tiger Woods have used on other platforms. [...] Right now, Byte isn’t verifying prominent or notable users the way Twitter and Facebook do.
On Saturday, just a day after Byte’s launch, Hofmann acknowledged the presence of spam bots on the platform in a tweet. Then, on Sunday, he wrote a post on Byte’s community forum titled “Taking out the garbage,” [...]
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guest · Jan 31, 2020

Vine successor Byte will share all its ad revenue to lure early creators
It wants to recreate Vine by rewarding bigger stars
January 31, 2020
https://www.engadget.com/2020/01/31/byte-partner-program-details/

Now that Byte has had a chance to reel in some users, the team is outlining another part of its Vine revival: how it'll pay its stars. The team has published initial details of a Partner Program that will pay creators who pull in large audiences for their looping videos.

Byte will create a "Partner Pool" every 120 days, and will pay those partners in four 30-day instalments based on the viewership for those periods. The more views a partner gets, the higher they'll climb a "Viewership Bracket" ladder that pays them more money. Everyone in a bracket will be paid the same amount, so Byte won't necessarily play favorites.
Don't expect to start making a living as a Byte influencer for a while. The pilot is due to start in the US in 60 to 90 days, and it'll be invitation-only at first.

The challenge, of course, is building up Byte in the first place.
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guest · Feb 2, 2020

Ads invade Byte with a campaign from Nike
It's now clearer how Byte plans to survive
February 1, 2020
https://www.engadget.com/2020/02/01/byte-ads-nike/

Like it or not, the Vine revival app Byte is bringing in a staple of modern social networks: prominent ads. The looping video app has launched its first ad campaign with Nike, which is running a rathe conspicuous "Self Hail Mary" sponsored section alongside the usual categories.

Byte's strategy revolves around paying creators a cut of ad revenue, and it'll need big promos like Nike's if it's going to have enough money to make it worthwhile for would-be influencers.
The challenge, of course, is to bring in enough ads without driving away the very users Byte needs to recreate Vine's glory days.

byte's first ad campaign is live and we did it with @nike. i'm *really* proud of our collaboration. the creative is amazing and nike's focus on movement and fun is a perfect fit for our first step into this world pic.twitter.com/I34iRGFFvS
— dom hofmann (@dhof) February 1, 2020
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guest · Feb 3, 2020

Vine Successor Byte Generated 1.3 Million Downloads in Its First Week
February 3, 2020
https://sensortower.com/blog/byte-downloads-first-week

Byte, the new looping-video platform from the co-founder of Vine, gained more than 1.3 million users in its first week according to Sensor Tower Store Intelligence data.

In the seven days since its launch on January 24, Byte has proven most popular in the United States, with the 912,000 times it was downloaded there making it the app’s largest market with 70 percent of total installs. Its next two countries in terms of popularity were Great Britain with 7 percent installs and Canada with 6 percent.
For comparison, Vine—which was released seven years previously to the day on January 24, 2013—was downloaded 775,000 times in the same seven-day window following its launch.
All Bark, No Byte?
Vine’s 2013 heyday was a different social media landscape to today’s. With influencers (and those hoping to become them) driving so much of the popularity of top apps such as TikTok and Instagram, will the six-second video concept be enough for Byte to muscle its way in among its competitors today?
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guest · Feb 28, 2020

Byte is about to pay $250,000 to creators for good videos
For 100 creators to start
February 28, 2020
https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/28/...payouts-starting-april-partner-program-talent

Byte plans to start paying creators in April, offering $250,000 in total payouts to the first group of creators in its partner program.

The program will be fairly limited at first. Only up to 100 creators will be included, and they have to apply and be chosen by Byte. Byte says it’s looking for people who regularly post, make full-screen portrait videos, and are positive members of the community.
Creators will be put into “Viewership Brackets,” and everyone in the same bracket will be paid the same amount. The company doesn’t give specifics on how much creators can expect to make.

It’s a small start, but it’s nonetheless an important move from the upstart social video app.

“Our long-term plan is to have a majority of the revenue going to creators, with a minority going to us to help with our operations and business,” Byte wrote last month.
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