Pictorious B.I.G.
1) I wanted to be more creative with the headline, and work in a Notorious B.I.G. reference in some kind of clever way. That would have taken too much time.
2) Semi-ProTip: If you want to find out about cool apps before your friends, check the “release date” tab under the different app categories in the iPhone App Store a few times a week.
And now: Pictorious.
During my weekly what’s new browse through the app store, I came across a neat little app called Pictorious. Pictorious defines itself as a fun, mobile, photo-sharing game. The game is started with a picture of a specific event or action, and other users participate in the game by offering their own photos of that particular even or action.
For example, a recent game had a picture of Tom Brady in his signature hunched over slump sitting on the field. Pictorious challenged their users to photograph themselves or someone else “Bradying”. From there, users vote on which photo they think is the best with “likes”. The person with the most likes wins the game, along with a smattering of self-confidence and pride. Plans for brand sponsored games with actual prizes are planned.
To put Pictorious in more relateable terms, you may like to think of it as a sort of DailyBooth+DrawSomething+BuzzFeed love-child.
There are plenty of reasons to be both excited and indifferent about Pictorious.
Pictorious is not the first time the interactive photo-post has been tried. About 3 years ago, there was a website called DailyMission which did essentially the same thing - posting a daily categorical contest, and allowing their users to respond with photos or videos relevant to the topic. More recently, a sparsely populated website named JustSnapThis seems to be pursing a similar idea. Based on the non-existence of DailyMission and the ghost-town that is JustSnapThis, I’m not convinced people want something like Pictorious.
Part of this, arguably, is due to the non-existence of a mobile application. The mobile app significantly reduces the “barrier” to uploading photos, as the photos can be taken and uploaded via the same device. However, even DailyBooth, the once hot “twitter for photos”, seems to have largely stagnated - even with the presence of a mobile app.
On the other hand, if there is going to be a startup that will finally crack the interactive photo-contest I would say that Pictorious would be the one to do it. The current success of DrawSomething lens support to the argument that mobile users like to waste time on creative and interactive games. Yes, taking and uploading a photo is different than playing a modified version of pictionary, but you have to allow that there is a slim correlation there. Also, the current obsession with the perpetuation of memes and the ongoing growth and success of BuzzFeed will only offer a second platform for these memes to be perpetuated, as well as offer a source of endless new photo content for BuzzFeed’s editors endless pageview hogging photo-collections.
Pictorious may not be your thing. It’s not mine. I, honestly, will probably never use it. Not even once. But, I also don’t see myself ever using DrawSomething. I don’t like games. Nonetheless, I will be keeping an eye on Pictorious to see if they can finally find an audience for interactive photo games.
Pictorious is led by Andrew Chung and Michael Park. More on there impressive resumes here.
