British stealth startup Zkatter is launching a real-time microblogging service in the next few months that could be a hit. Similar in theory to Twitter, Zkatter asks users “What do you see now?” vs. Twitter’s “What are you doing?”
The service, which has been in development since 2008, will allow anybody to broadcast and archive ‘live moments’ comprising location, media (image, video and text) to ‘friends only’ or ‘the public’ which can then be discovered instantly via search and friends time-lines. Zkatter’s focus is towards capturing information that you physically see live which offers a interesting addition to the real-time space.
Zkatter, which has received $1.5 million in Series A funding, is also developing iPhone and Android apps to work in conjunction with the standalone site, with the platform updated in real-time across all devices. So if you post an update on your iPhone, it will automatically show on the site. And Zkatter will be integrated with Facebook and Twitter, so you can publish you updates to both social networks as well. There are additional features to the site but this is the general idea of what the Zkatter will be able to do.
We took a little test run of the site, and it’s impressive. Not only is the user-interface easy to use, but the seamless real-time integration between mobile and the web. But Zkatter will still face competition from Twitter and the plethora of content-sharing Twitter applications, like TwitPic or TwitVid, which also let you broadcast “live moments.” The site is also similar to DailyBooth.
Zkatter’s founder Matt Hagger tells me that there is still a good amount of development that needs to be done for the site but he’s confident that Zkatter will find a place in the real-time space. There’s no doubt that the rise of real-time streams is fundamentally altering the way we communicate and interact with one another, which is why we are holding our second RealTime CrunchUp on November 20th. You can buy tickets for the event here. Startups will be launching their latest real-time products and we are bringing together a host of notable panelists to share their thoughts on the realtime stream.
Meh. Honestly doesn’t differentiate itself too much from Twitter. I do like the UI though.
so real-time is the new buzz word after web2.0.
Any bets on what the next buzzword will be ? as id like to get in early and launch an idea on the back of it.
According to me it’ll be On-Demand- More about it here – http://wp.me/pw0hs-53
Amazed how companies like these get funded and how investors buyin- Differentiation: What do you see?
The next opportunity for a startup may be “What do you hear?”
8 friggin mentions of “real-time”
interesting how this is allready being done..BUT Zkatter makes me Want to do it..makes it FUN.
good job on the design!
sandy
This service sounds like MobJet.com – which launced in Japan in July and Singapore last week. MobJet supports text, doc uploads (ala Scribd), video, audio, all mobile platforms, etc. Here is a “jet stream” of posts by a PR person from MobJet.com (you can see it was discussed all over the Singapore biz press the last couple of weeks): http://www.mobj...et_streams/1200
because you mentioned “DailyBooth”, I wanted to check it up.
The service is bullshit and additional they dont let me delete my account again.
what is that for a bad move to gain dead profiles?
fucking shit….
I can recognize posts from Leena easily. Zero critical content. Its like a re-piped press release…
Interesting, actually. The mere changing of “What do you see now?” vs. Twitter’s “What are you doing?” changes everything.
Can see this being bought in the near future by CNN.
Pode gerar um modelo de negócios interessante.
Att,
Marcelo
This will be an interesting think tech geeks will check out for a few months then forgotten about shortly after. The world doesn’t need or want another twitter. Most people have their facebooks and twitter are just happy with only those. The less options we have to choose from the better imo
Where did they raise $1.5m from? Who are Global Intermedia Ltd?
Oh great, so now embarrasing things can be captured forever. I thought that was what youtube was for.
There has been only one important thing missing in the web space until recently. The question was never really asked:
“What do you need?”
Now I ask you to answer this question here:
http://needcube.com
Gery
I would have to agree with Ricardo – “what do you see now?” sets a new tone. I like Twitter myself but find post to Facebook get lost in the shuffle. If Zkatter can blend in nicely with Facebook while drawing attention to FB users – it will be a smash hit!
Real-time, real-time, man this is getting stuck in my head. Looks like a good service but I will be surprised if Twitter does not have something to combat this. 12seconds.tv is fully integrated into TweetDeck so you can shoot out video through Twitter.