Pheed.com Might be the Next Big Thing in Social Media Sharing

It has been called “Twitter with a business model.” The interface looks like Twitter, but it feels a lot like Tumblr. If this works out as a monetization platform, Pheed.com might be larger than Facebook or YouTube in the long run.

Raising Eyebrows on Pheed.com

Seriously, the concept of “planned obsolescence” has been hounding the world wide web since the Internet bubble burst. There have been developers who started companies, developed apps, only to be bought out, or worse, to lose presence. These have included ICQ which was bought by AIM, and then there’s MySpace and Friendster. The blogging site Posterous has taken leave as well.

The latest, and one of the fastest growing internet sites is Pheed.com. Pronounced as “feed,” it has an interface which looks a lot like Twitter, but with the ability to upload pictures, audio, and videos. Its iPhone app has also been released, and it has jumped to more than a million signups in its first week.

Pheed’s CEO O.D. Kodo admitted that the site is a mashup of existing platforms on the web. It has a timeline, it has trending topics, and it has content uploading and sharing, including live feeds. It also has paid channels. Users can monetize their feeds on a per subscription basis, or on a per access basis. This is an optional feature, but it makes it very easy for content creators to decide later on if they want to earn from their media or not. Additionally, each post has a check box, asking the content owner if the post is going to come with a copyright notice or not. If it is an original content, it should be copyrighted.

Pheed.com for Creatives

For those who already make a living producing creatives, this is just another venue for their work. It might also turn out to be one with the easiest monetization program. Sign up, create a channel, click on the button asking if you want to get paid, and that’s it. It also connects easily to Facebook and Twitter. The user can choose to send the feeds automatically to a link on Facebook or Twitter. It should also be easy to post on other social media and social networking sites.

As a new social media site, it seems to be the complete package. The only thing remaining is the proof that it works. There are several celebrities who happen to have large followings on other social media. Miley Cyrus, David Guetta, Chris Brown and Paris Hilton, to name a few, are onsite and have their own paid channels. For the rest of the world, specially for newbies in social media, they would have to find out what sells, and at what price. There are a lot of more popular and established sites, and the content on these sites just keep getting better and better. For a pheed.com channel to earn, it has to differentiate itself from other channels and offer something unique.

Pheed.com Offers Convergence

What Pheed.com has brought to the table is a convergence of trends. It can share media and text, and it monetizes easily. All the incentives are there. The indicators for early success, however, are also present. It has a large number of initial sign-ups and the release of the iPhone app has seen lots of downloads. Whether it works or not, the results should show early.