Video has become as simple for ordinary consumers to create as snapping a photo. But while digital snapshots have become so ubiquitous that they have morphed from a kind of consumer “art” into routine day-to-day communication, that sort of transformation has yet to occur with video. The success on Twitter of Vine, which allows the creation of 6-second repeating videos, suggests such a transition may loom. Now Instagram, too, enables short videos. The raw materials are in place, and the consumer will to change behavior seems to be emerging.
This new report from GigaOm Research evaluates the factors that may enable the rise of more polished, convenient, everyday videos that could rival stills as a routine tool for consumer communication and expression. First of all, capturing video is becoming easier and easier, as smartphone adoption soars globally. Second, so-called “enhancement solutions” are evolving quickly. The category includes editing, applying creative filters, and adding effects including music. (The study was underwritten by Magisto, a growing creation, enhancement, and distribution application for video on iOS and Android.) Finally, ordinary people are starting to share personal videos more and more freely on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. As sharing controls improve and new applications to facilitate it emerge, the elements may finally be in place for all of us to begin sharing video everyday, to communicate and to entertain.
-David Kirkpatrick, Chief Techonomist
Executive summary of the gigaom personal video report
To date, personal video hasn’t exploded the way photos have. But, like photos, personal video has the potential to break out from its role as a storehouse for memories of life’s key moments and become an integral part of consumers’ real-time social sharing habits.
With camcorders, creating a polished movie worth sharing took much more time, effort, and skill than enhancing and sharing photos—even with easy video editing programs like iMovie. Most consumers lack the artistry to marry shooting video with high production values, editing, music, and dialogue to create a compelling narrative. This imbalance restricted taking video to special occasions and to use by dedicated prosumer hobbyists.
Now, video cameras have become ubiquitous on mobile phones, and short-form video apps like Vine and Instagram are familiarizing consumers with the concept of taking video anytime, anywhere. With easy-to-use tools from the likes of Animoto and Magisto arriving in an evolving ecosystem, longer, story-driven personal video is poised to take off. If the following take hold, adoption of personal video will match that of photo sharing:
- In terms of video capture, short-form video taken on smartphones is booming. The line between video and photos is blurring: Consumers can take photos and videos at the same time, and extract high-resolution photos from video footage post-recording. For actual usage to blur, the industry must educate customers that they can capture photos and video simultaneously, rather than having to choose between the two media types.
- Video enhancement solutions have made huge strides recently. Video editing no longer requires a substantial learning curve. Some apps or websites let consumers create an edited and professional looking multimedia video literally within minutes. Going forward, these automatic video enhancement solutions must be better integrated with action cam footage and viral sharing—they’re starting to get good at photo and music integration already.
- Video sharing on the smartphone is starting to trend toward “here-and-now sharing,” with the consumer recording and enhancing the video on the same device. That would accelerate if users get more selective sharing options—beyond mass-posting on YouTube and Facebook, they’ll want to post to specific groups of friends and family, and ad hoc contacts based on vicinity, address book, calendar, and social network data.
For more about the current state of personal video, including video capture and sharing trends and recommendations, download the full report.
To see Techonomy 2013 through the eyes of Magisto’s video application, click here.
