Fusing Photos and Voice, PaPa is the Perfect Social App (or Just Nonsense)
Having resisted the temptation to use the tired “China’s something something” format for the headline, I’m going to have to use it in the first paragraph. Here goes. The founder of China’s Tumblr invests in a Path clone. Yes, Xu Zhaojun, the founder of Diandian, one of China’s coolest lite-blogging services, has said that he has personally invested in a very new social app called PaPa . That makes it an app to watch.
「中国の何とかの何とか」という使い尽くした書式の見出しを使う誘惑に抵抗してきたが、第一段落目で使わざるをえない。それは、中国のTumblrの創設者がPathクローンに投資している。そう、中国で最も秀でた軽量ブログサービスのDiandianの創設者、Xu Zhaojun氏が、PaPaと呼ばれるとても新しいソーシャルアプリに個人的に投資していると述べたのだ。そこで、このアプリをチェックしてみた。
見出しに「中国のなんたらかんたら」という陳腐な体裁を使いたい衝動に抗おうとしても、やはり、それを最初の段落で使わざる負えないだろう。よし、始めよう。中国のTumblrの創設者はそのクローンと呼べるものに投資した。そう、中国で最もクールなシミニブログサービスの一つであるDiandianの創設者であるXu Xhaojin氏がPaPaというできたてのソーシャルアプリに投資すると発言した。この発言はPaPaへの注目を集めた。
Aside from PaPa’s terrible name, it’s a clever app that fuses the best social elements of Path, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter/Weibo all into one. If that’s not enough, it also supports sending voice messages of up to 60 seconds in length, sort of like China’s popular Weixin/WeChat app. It can integrate with Chinese social networks like Weibo. It sounds like an overblown mess, but it might prove a hit with local smartphone users if it can find a niche – perhaps as an Instagram-on-steroids that can do voice plus photos. It was launched earlier this month as an iPhone app from its PaPa.me homepage.
Though it’s not known how much Xu Zhaojun (pictured right) angel-invested in Papa, it prompted speculation in Chinese tech media that his own startup, Diandian, might pivot in the light of PaPa app and its more innovative approach to a social networking. But he has responded by saying that Diandian will focus on being a minimalist and funky blogging platform.
Diandian is backed by Innovation Works and has received over US$10 million in funding from the likes of Sequoia Capital. But Diandian’s initial success prompted local copycats that perhaps ruined its potential – not least when China’s biggest Twitter-esque site, Sina Weibo, launched its own lite-blogging service called Qing.
Get PaPa app, which supports Chinese and English, from the iTunes App Store.