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Unda mobile messaging app rebrands to VideoSelfie, secures new funding round

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See the original story in Japanese. Unda is a mobile video messaging app brought from 500 Startups incubator last year. It will rebrand as VideoSelfie this week. The app allows users to take a video clip with a smartphone, add animated filters and music to it, and share it with other users. Tokyo-based Pocket Supernova, the company behind the app, has $1.2 million in a seed round from East Ventures, Klab Ventures, CyberAgent Ventures, and other investors. See also: Could the next wave in mobile messaging be video? 500 Startups’ Unda hopes so. Focused on real-time editing The Unda messaging app was developed for the exchange of video messages. But the team realized it would be a matter before the market was saturated, so they began differentiating themselves with new technology, according to Pocket Supernova CEO and co-founder Oscar Yasser Noriega. Since early 2014, the team has been focusing on adding real-time editing to the app, which allows users to add animated GIFs to selfie videos and share them with friends or other users via social network services. In addition, users can communicate with each other in the VideoSelfie community, which is similar to Instagram. Noriega explained: Many users take…

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See the original story in Japanese.

Unda is a mobile video messaging app brought from 500 Startups incubator last year. It will rebrand as VideoSelfie this week.

The app allows users to take a video clip with a smartphone, add animated filters and music to it, and share it with other users. Tokyo-based Pocket Supernova, the company behind the app, has $1.2 million in a seed round from East Ventures, Klab Ventures, CyberAgent Ventures, and other investors.

See also:

Focused on real-time editing

The Unda messaging app was developed for the exchange of video messages. But the team realized it would be a matter before the market was saturated, so they began differentiating themselves with new technology, according to Pocket Supernova CEO and co-founder Oscar Yasser Noriega.

Since early 2014, the team has been focusing on adding real-time editing to the app, which allows users to add animated GIFs to selfie videos and share them with friends or other users via social network services. In addition, users can communicate with each other in the VideoSelfie community, which is similar to Instagram.

Noriega explained:

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CEO Oscar Yasser Noriega

Many users take a video clip with their smartphone and send it a friend with a message. While video editing is getting popular, most apps have yet to adopt traditional ways, which lets users follow a step-by-step process for recording, editing, and adding filters. But VideoSelfie allows you to manage all these tasks in real-time in one screen and share the completed video clip instantly.

The VideoSelfie app is available in English, Japanese, and Spanish. Some 50% of their users are in North America, 25% from Southeast Asia, and the rest from other regions. While the app provides the same functions regardless of geographical conditions, some content or functions may be offered in specific markets. They will share a function focused on the Japanese market when it becomes available.

Taking selfie videos like ‘purikura’ photos

Looking at their user demographics, girls aged from 12 to 19 years are the majority. The penetration of the “selfie culture” varies from market to market. Selfies are popular in North America and Southeast Asia, but not in Japan. To be widely accepted, the team believes that they need to educate people so that they will take selfie videos like they do in taking purikura photos with friends.

The team plans to generate revenue by selling additional filters and effects as in-app purchases, but it could also license its technology to bigger companies as another avenue for monetization.

With the real-time editing, the VideoSelfie app may lower the psychological hurdle that a user might have in conventional video editing methods. The app may become popular among young Japanese girls if they can easily create cute video clips with it.

Could the next wave in mobile messaging be video? 500 Startups’ Unda hopes so.

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Mobile video has always been a somewhat perilous space for startups. I was a big fan of Seesmic back in 2008, which at the time proposed a sort of video equivalent of Twitter, with the capability of publishing short videos to a public timeline. Of course that service fizzled. But it looks like times have changed, with Twitter’s own video offering Vine racking up 13 million users in its first four months. One young startup hopes that there’s room for a mobile video messaging service too, and their app Unda is about to be released on the app store soon. But perhaps more interesting than the challenge that lies ahead of them is the story of how they got to where they are now. The startup was created by two Mexican and Japanese co-founders, a unique international collaboration that has led to Silicon Valley where they are now part of the 500 Startups incubation program. Oscar Yasser Noriega (from Mexico) and Nao Tokui (from Japan) originally met in Japan a few years ago. Eventually they decided that they wanted to do something together. Oscar had previously worked on a top Latin American video game site, but he liked the process…

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L to R: Luis Lopez, Oscar Yasser Noriega, Nao Tokui

Mobile video has always been a somewhat perilous space for startups. I was a big fan of Seesmic back in 2008, which at the time proposed a sort of video equivalent of Twitter, with the capability of publishing short videos to a public timeline. Of course that service fizzled. But it looks like times have changed, with Twitter’s own video offering Vine racking up 13 million users in its first four months.

One young startup hopes that there’s room for a mobile video messaging service too, and their app Unda is about to be released on the app store soon. But perhaps more interesting than the challenge that lies ahead of them is the story of how they got to where they are now. The startup was created by two Mexican and Japanese co-founders, a unique international collaboration that has led to Silicon Valley where they are now part of the 500 Startups incubation program.

Oscar Yasser Noriega (from Mexico) and Nao Tokui (from Japan) originally met in Japan a few years ago. Eventually they decided that they wanted to do something together. Oscar had previously worked on a top Latin American video game site, but he liked the process of incubating new ideas within the company. Nao had been the founder of Qosmo, a mobile development company doing apps for big clients. Oscar proposed the idea of doing a video messaging app, but Nao was a little bit hesitant at first. Was there really room for this kind of product, especially as so many video startups had already failed so hard?

Taking the plunge

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Eventually Nao came around to the idea. And when he did, he jumped in head first. He wanted to to meet up with Oscar, who was at that time in Mexico — so he flew straight over, and within two weeks had a prototype going. That was in December. And that’s when they thought that they might really be on to something.

After some interest from investors, the company’s third member and current chief creative officer, Luis Lopez, suggested that they should explore some more options. They took their idea to 500 Startups’ Mexico branch, and venture partner Cesar Salazar liked it a lot. Coincidentally 500 Startup’s founding partner Dave McClure had a talk in Mexico around that time, so they pitched the idea to him as well, and he loved it too. That was on a Wednesday, says Oscar, and they were on Silicon Valley by the following Monday. That was a little later than the most recent batch of startups, but great step forward for the young company.

As for the product itself, I personally have yet to see it. But from what I’ve heard, I’m optimistic. I’m told the UX/UI breaks with tradition, with no text, emoticons, or stickers — just video. They have focused on making the experience a good one even on slow networks. So of course while they plan to push this app in mature Asian mobile markets like Japan or Singapore, they will also target emerging markets in the region, as well as in Latin America — leveraging the advantage of having founders from both regions.

And hopefully unlike the video startup failures we’ve seen in the past, maybe the time is right for a service like Unda. Oscar explains:

Back around 2008 the timing was not right. Phones were fast, but not fast enough for a seamless experience. Networks weren’t so fast either, and there were less phones with front facing cameras. The timing was tricky for services back then. But now there are great examples of mobile video booming – not just things like YouTube and NicoNico Douga, but shorter format services like Vine, which is just six second videos. That’s a great signal that the market is embracing this right now.

So how will the market respond to Unda? It’s hard to say without seeing it first, but my initial impressions are that this is a pretty strong team, so I don’t think anyone should underestimate them. They did after all, make the cut for 500 Startups, a good indication that they’re on to something promising.

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