Klink, The Social App That Crossbred Instagram, Tsū & YouTube

It’s an exciting time for the digerati to be traversing the social media landscape. For many who have

tested the waters and drunk the cool-aid of the earlier pioneering networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, we are now witnessing others, which are eager to shake up old paradigms with some intriguing new business models. This month, we take a look at Klink, the newest to arrive on the social scene, after taking some cues from a few of its predecessors.

Melding Social Apps Together

“Instagram" is a portmanteau of "instant camera" and "telegram,” Launched back in 2010, its core feature introduced the world to selfies and turning our meals into instant photo ops. Like Twitter when it first arrived, it turned the mundane into the vain — but in a good way — particularly since the quality of smartphone cameras had improved so much.

When Facebook acquired the social app in April, 2012 for a cool $1 billion in cash and stock, both investors and the digerati took notice, and by September, 2015 the platform has now registered over 400 million monthly active users.

So, like when Instagram disrupted Twitter’s status quo, Tsu on the other hand — after launching one year ago last October — disrupted the space that Facebook had dominated for over a decade.

This was one of the first social networks to actually pay its users for their original content to the tune of 90 percent of all advertising revenues. This was followed up by introducing it’s ‘Open Web’ platform enabling viral content to be searchable across the Web. In less than a year, this unique network has scaled to over 4 million users, a feat that surpassed Facebook's ability to reach that milestone back in the day.

A Pinch of Instagram, A Dash of Tsu, A Spoonful of YouTube

Klink is a new photographic social networking platform which is mixing things up yet still. Like Tsu, it's sweetening the pot with royalty earnings. Its free iOS and Android apps, which has just emerged from a three-month beta generates payment for frequently viewed photos in real-time, which differs slightly from Tsu (where payments are not added to one's bank until the following day.)

In addition to full-screen photos, the app which currently does not have a desktop counterpart allows its users to produce native video à la YouTube (up to 20 seconds) from either the app’s built-in camera, or via a camera roll.

Klink then pays users $2.00 per 1,000 photo views, counting only unique views. In addition, you can share photos with other Klink users and other social networks.

A 99-cent in-app purchase allows users photos appear on a “Featured” feed to boost visibility. Influencers with a high level of page views get a separate “Creators” tab on the home screen. The app’s video camera lets you create montages by switching between gallery and live capture footage, as well as post videos in slow motion and in reverse.

While the app is fairly intuitive, this visual tutorial is hopeful to kick-start the process for new users.

The company generates revenue via banner ads, interstitial video, native advertising and in-app user purchases.

Taylor PierceKlink’s CEO Taylor Pierce based in Austin, Texas indicate that though the app is presently smaller in scope than some of the other networks, it will be giving YouTube a bit of a go, by allowing videos to be produced on the site — and longer in length than those produced on Instagram.

“I have a small but successful YouTube channel,” said Pierce to iDigitalTimes about how the idea was conceived. “I film my motorcycle rides and post them to YouTube. I love creating these videos and interacting with my followers. The surprise is that these YouTube videos now generate enough revenue to pay for my motorcycles! I wanted to bring this concept of revenue sharing to a full-screen photo and short-form video platform. We think it is time for people to be compensated for their creativity. ”

Additionally, similar to Tsu, Pierce added that “Klink is about rewarding human creativity . . . (where) we felt it was only fair to share ad revenue back with our users, seeing as they provide the content for our platform.”

So while it is a bit of a mix-stew of several other social platforms, its appeal from my perspective hinges on its ease of access and its calculation of money earned in real time (with the ability to cash out after you've reached a $25 threshold.)

And, even though it has a name reminiscent of one wacky German Colonel from that old TV sitcom of the 60s, I think with a few tweaks and some platform enhancements (including a desktop version), it does have the wherewithal to attract a good number of users in a short period of time.

So, let’s get klinking, Digerati!