TikTok has revolutionized the way in which people eat and share information. Now a startup called Vylo desires to take the short video format a step further and lets users share their thoughts about sports, current affairs, and other categories of stories by filming themselves talking.
My first response to the concept was: why does one must share news comments via video clips? Cannot it just occur within the text-based comment section of The Recent York Times or other news web sites?
Tyler Reynolds, founder and CEO of Vylo, believes the long run of stories lies in videos. “We’re looking forward to constructing the dominion of stories and discourse and what news platforms will appear like very shortly in the long run,” he said in an interview with TechCrunch.
Developed by a team within the U.S., the Netherlands and Ukraine, Vylo combines news aggregation and video-driven social media. Its home tab encompasses a stream of stories compiled from major publications and curated by an in-house team. Under each story is an option so as to add one’s video response. For individuals who do not feel comfortable showing faces, audio is an option, too.
Image: Vylo
A giant VC name is vouching for Vylo. Kleiner Perkins Fairchild Fund IV led the startup’s $2 million pre-seed round that has recently closed. Other investors from the round included Brian Cornell, CEO of Goal; Ryan Howard, a 3x Major League Baseball All-Star; Curt Shi from Welinder Shi Capital; 8808 Ventures, the enterprise firm of Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse; amongst other angel investors.
Considered one of the appeals of video-based news discussion is that it adds a human touch, Reynolds argued. “You and I and eight other friends exit to lunch and we’re talking about every little thing from COVID to Joe Biden to travel to whatever because we’re one another’s trusted sources. There’re these moments that we’ve got on a regular basis… We could recreate those moments with a tech platform.”
User-generated video commentary is nothing recent, but Reynolds thinks the barrier of entry is simply too high on existing channels like YouTube, where users must first eloquently and succinctly sum up the news. With Vylo, however, creators can simply give their two-minute tackle a news piece item that already exists on the app, a side that the founder believes lowers the bar for news commentary.
In effect, Vylo is visualizing the response section on traditional news sites and democratizing video commentary.
The “social” aspect of Vylo is the “Trending” tab that displays popular video and audio comments, that are ranked by their “insightfulness”, just like how readers upvote comments on traditional news web sites. For a more personalized news digest, users can create their very own “Newsstand” by following various outlets and topics. Comments are vetted by the third-party content moderation provider Hive before going live.
Break from the past
Twitter has long been the world’s digital public square, but as Elon Musk turns the social media giant the wrong way up, upset users are leaving in droves.
Nonetheless, Vylo doesn’t plan to be a Twitter alternative like Mastodon. “It’s like a bunch of dogs chasing tails,” said Reynolds. “Everyone’s focused on the here and now. But our tech and tech platforms will evolve. We have now no interest to be a Twitter competitor. We’re looking much further into what’s the long run of this stuff.
“One vital note is the factor of individuals showing their faces and showing their voices. That is something that we actually aren’t afraid to be rolling out now because it will be a mainstay very soon,” he added.
“I feel the long run of stories is decentralized,” suggested Shi from Welinder Shi Capital, pointing to the participatory nature of Vylo. “The young generation doesn’t really get their news from news sites anymore. They’re on Twitter and Instagram, but these platforms aren’t primarily for news, so there may be a spot to be filled.”
Vylo launched its public beta version a number of weeks ago and has drawn over 500 users. Monetization will not be something on its imminent agenda, but when the time comes, the startup is weighing a number of options, including an ad-free user subscription, a revenue-sharing model with content creators, and helping paywalled publications drive subscriptions from which it might take a cut.
