5seconds: the video version of Instragram, procures funding from the Samurai Fund.
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On the 15th of May 2011, Miew, (the company which is doing the planning and development of a smartphone Social Video Service(SVS) called 5seconds) carry third-party allocation of shares which guarantor Samurai Incubate Fund2 investment business limited partnership. The amount of stated capital was increased to 890million yen, which will be used mainly in system development and staff employment. Along with the funding, Mr.Sakakibara (Director of Samurai Incubate) was appointed as the outside director.
5seconds is a similar concept to that of numerous Silicon Valley related companies; its funding is also similar to the funding that Instagram and Path received (from Digital Garage) and the funding Color received (from Sequoia Capital).
By adding stylish effects to videos taken using smartphones, 5seconds is more or less like a video version of Instagram. And, like Instagram, it also gives you the ability to share on Twitter and Facebook.
The time limit of 5 seconds is based on the assumption that most people aren’t interested in watching a personal video for more than 10 seconds, similar to the concept of 140 characters for Twitter.
The idea not to position it as a video application, but to position it as adding sound and motion to photos (Miew). 5seconds makes sharing videos more interesting and fun by adding your expressions to video, similar to the current applications where expressions can be added to photographs.
5seconds is currently only available in English and is only available on iPhones; however, by year end, it will support Android devices.
Prior to the official launch in May, a beta version was released in April. It is available through email (info@miew.co.jp),
The 5seconds business model is freemium, which focuses on getting users first . During the year of 2011, Miew is aiming to get 300 million users.
“We’ll take over the market of photographs in the future” declares the representatives from Miew.
Miew was established on March 8th , 2011 and 5seconds is currently under development.
