Since last spring we’ve been tracking the progress of Socialcam, the ‘Instagram for Video’ that spun off from Justin.tv. The app, which is available for iOS and Android, hit the 2 million download milestone at the beginning of the month, and to mark the occasion it launched a new feature that made the ‘Instagram’ comparison even more apt: filters. Yes, you can now overlay your videos with an array of effects (the top two are 70′s and Electronica).
As it turns out, people really like filters on their videos. A lot. Socialcam CEO Michael Seibel tells me that in the two weeks since launching filters, Socialcam had 350,000 downloads, an 84% increase in daily app opens, 69% increase in daily video viewers, and 50% boost in video creation (that’s huge). And there’s little question that filters were a huge driver of this: 45% of videos currently being shared on Socialcam are using them.
Seibel says that filters have been a huge success for Socialcam because it makes it easier for users to feel like they’ve filmed something worth sharing. Photo filters (e.g. on Instagram) accomplish the same thing, where filters turn the mundane into something vaguely artsy, or even cool. And Seibel thinks this trend is magnified with video.
Oh, and he also noted the biggest new use case for Socialcam: the folks at Occupy Wall Street.
Socialcam is a new mobile video application coming to both iPhone and Android. Socialcam makes it fast, easy and fun to capture, share and view high quality movies of life’s moments with friends and family.