Beme

Beme /ˈbiːm/ is a video messaging application created by Matt Hackett and Casey Neistat, a popular vlogger and short film maker on YouTube,^[3][4] and developed by Beme, Inc. On November 28, 2016, CNN announced that it will acquire Beme.^[5] The news network intends to invest in the company and create a new brand focused on a young audience.^[6]

Releases

The first version of Beme was launched on July 17, 2015 for iOS.^[7] On May 2, 2016, an Android version was released.

On March 25, 2016, version 0.9.0 was publicly released to the iOS App Store. The new version featured a new white and green UI as well as support for iPads and iPod touches without a proximity sensor. Version 0.9 was the first major release featuring a brand new UI since the first public version. It also was the first version that allowed for a record time of up to 8 seconds and allowed you to stop any time while recording a beme and have it uploaded regardless of record time as long as it was between 2-8 seconds.

On May 2, 2016, version 1.0.0 was released also for Android. The new version featured Beme stats in the profile, new discovery screen to find people near and far and now you can tap on Bemes to react and watch full screen. Version 1.0.3 was released on May 3, 2016 and fixed major issues with the proximity sensor on the Android version.

Features

Designed as an alternative to highly edited content found in social media, the app enables users to produce unedited 2-to-8-second videos, which are immediately uploaded and shared with the user's subscribers, without the ability to preview the video.^[8] Users respond to shared content by sending "reactions", photographs of themselves, back to the video uploader.^[9] To begin recording, users cover their phone's proximity sensor, and the video lasts until the proximity sensor is uncovered or the time limit is reached. After the app stops recording, the video is automatically shared.

In November 2016, Neistat announced another creation in association with Beme, called Exit Poll. The app followed a simple premise of asking users to share who they were voting for. The user was then asked to record a video response on why they were voting for that particular candidate. These were then collated together and shared via Facebook live during the election.^[10]

Business

On July 28, 2015, Casey Neistat confirmed a US$2.6M seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners^[11] and VaynerRSE.^[11]

At TechCrunch, on May 2016, Neistat informed that they had raised a total of US$6M and had 11 full-time employees (10 technical, 1 responsible for social media). He also reported that burn rate was under around US$180k per month and that his salary was US$0.^[12]

On November 28th, 2016, Beme was acquired by CNN for a reported $25 million.^[13] CNN plans to shutter the current application, and use the current talent behind Beme to work on a separate start-up endeavor. Beme's current team will retain full creative control of the new project which is slated to release in the summer of 2017.

Press

Shortly after the launch, BuzzFeed described Beme's minimalist design as "deceptively simple and decidedly weird."^[14] The New York Times explained that Beme's user experience is "as if the phone becomes a stand-in for one's body, the camera facing outward to capture what the user is experiencing."^[15] Within eight days of the app's release, Beme users had shared 1.1 million videos and logged 2.4 million reactions.^[16]

References