Author: erikabevers

Hello! My name is Erika Bevers and I am a marketing student at Georgia State University. As a millennial, I'm a lover of all things tech. This day in age, our phones serve as the most useful tool in terms of communication, entertainment, and getting the job done. It is my mission to find the next hot (or not) apps to make your life a little bit easier. Hope you enjoy! Adelisa I. is a social media expert. She is currently taking marketing classes at Georgia State University. She has her own blog about the emerging social media platform called Houseparty. It is a live group video chat service that allows you to connect with contacts already saved in your phone.

Featuring… Adelisa to talk about Houseparty!

The CEO Ben Ruben who previously created another successful communicating App called Meerkat created HouseParty. HouseParty is a face-to-face social network that helps us spend time with the people we care about. Where being together is as easy as showing up. HouseParty is an app that can be used beyond just our phones, where it connects us to friends and family and allows up to 8 people to simultaneously view each other. It shows users who is online, and allows us to send video messages to get people online.

The app was created to help connect more people at once while providing maximum security and privacy during live viewings. The app has protected security measures within it to help ensure safe viewing. Since the app is push toward teenagers it uses fun quotes and party terms to keep it fun and trendy. It has a super easy user interface that keeps all your friends only one click away.

I like this app because it reminds me of a better version of snap chat. Snap chat has similar features where it connects users together by pictures, chats, and online viewing but as a Snapchat user the video using is poor. I find myself on face time before I do on snapchat video. And the chats save if the other person decides? That’s lame. Houseparty deletes ALL chats within 24 hours. Houseparty can also send text messages to other users to get them to get online since its connected to a number, where as other social media apps like Snapchat, whatsapp, and instagram dope.

The future of HouseParty looks bright since it still has relevancy among users for more than two years, and that it sets itself apart with privacy and number of user features. I expect the app to continue integrating more outlets like instagram and potentially dating apps like Tinder. Users have mentioned they use this app to flirt since it lets you know who’s online, which is the cutest! I plan on using the app for my videos here on out.

To party more with Houseparty, come check out the rest of my blog here!

http://housepartychatting.video.blog/

Gartner’s Hype Cycle

I believe that Cyber Dust falls on the Slope of Enlightenment on Gartner’s Cycle.

To get a better understanding of Gartner’s Hype Cycle, watch this short video.

While he is known for owning the Dallas Mavericks, his entrepreneurial background was in tech. To further his credentials, he is an investor on the popular ABC show Shark Tank, where he listens to up-and-coming entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas. There, he offers real business insight and advice.

Marc Cuban founded this company 5 years ago, at which point, he was already a household name. He had already established the platform, audience, and necessary funding. This would have been the technology trigger.

When it was advertised that Cyber Dust was completely untraceable, confidential, private, and secure, the audience got excited because this was something even Snapchat hadn’t done before. To further the excitement, he even mentions that if the FBI were to raid your house and take your drives, nothing would be found from Cyber Dust, as its content never touches a storage device. Coming from a tech guy, this was ground-breaking stuff. This was the Peak of Inflated Expectations.

Unfortunately, screenshots are all-too-common this day in age. As Cyber Dust gained more ground, a common criticism and MAJOR setback for this app was that there’s no way to ensure screenshots cannot be taken. A statement under the FAQ section in the app reads as follows,

“Currently, Cyber Dust does not completely prevent screenshots from being taken because taking a screenshot is a built-in feature of your device. We hide the username of the friend you are chatting with the separate chat content from the username. We are working on a solution to completely prevent screenshots on the future.”

Though this is not necessarily the fault of the company, this is a huge let-down in terms of maintaining the absolute privacy and confidentiality. Because of this, potential users did not see the point in using the application at all. I would consider this to be the Trough of Disillusionment.

This brings us to where we are today. All things considered, I would say Cyber Dust is in the Slope of Enlightenment. Even though screenshots are a huge issue, Cyber Dust does a better job of maintaining privacy than its leading competitor, Snapchat. The username does not show while messages are being exchanged and more importantly, nothing is ever saved to a drive. That’s right… no resurfacing of old pictures you never want to see again from 5 years ago. Additionally, the world of tech moves at such a fast pace. Because this app is 5 years old and has already had its grand, public introduction by Marc Cuban himself, I believe the app is further along in the Hype Cycle.

Practical Ecommerce named Cyber Dust on of the emerging social networks to watch. Read it here.

https://www.practicalecommerce.com/13-Emerging-Social-Networks-to-Watch

Information Architecture, User Interface, and User Experience

Fortunately, you don’t have to be a tech-savvy wizard to get the gist of Cyber Dust. Millennial social butterflies and working professionals have one thing in common: they like easy-to-figure-out-and-use applications.

Here is a short video on how to use the app.

Let’s talk about how the IA of the app to start with. The layout of everything is simple. A cool thing about Cyber Dust is the way the app utilizes color… like a traffic light, red means stop, and green means go. The concept here is similar. A green icon pops up when you can access a message and red pops up when you can’t. Naturally, since the entire app is based on the premise of privacy, most of everything is highlighted in red. This use of color is helpful in terms of app design, as users can associate colors with certain features of the application.

In terms of UI, the app is again, simple. The app automatically syncs phone contacts into the app itself, so when users are looking for friends who already have the app, it shows up on the friend list automatically. In addition, there is a feature to invite friends to download Cyber Dust who aren’t already using it. This is great for millennials who like convenience, because the issue of literally having to exchange contact information is eliminated. This is also great for professionals, because they most likely have the contacts in their phone updated to the absolute max but may struggle with scanning QR codes and figuring out how to search usernames.

User experience is very important to Cyber Dust, especially because it’s still under the radar. There is a feedback feature on the sidebar where you can drop any comments you want about the app to the Cyber Dust team. The best thing about this is that they respond to feedback. This is very unique for a social media channel to have, but it is to ensure the users get the best possible experience they can have.

Who is the audience?

Marc Cuban, Owner of Dallas Mavericks and television personality on Shark Tank, founded this company because of an issue he has few years ago with the SEC. Hackers were somehow able to find old snaps he had sent, and this prompted him to launch his own encrypted messaging application.

A key point the Marc makes in this video is that nothing you send on Snapchat is private. That’s because messages sent through Snapchat are saved on a drive, unlike Cyber Dust. This is the key differentiating factor between the two apps. Having said that, who is the target audience for Cyber Dust?

PROFESSIONALS and SNAPCHAT USERS.

Cyber Dust is ideal for professionals who value their privacy like Marc Cuban. Rather than using the app for socializing, it can be extremely useful in terms of discussing ideas and information that is to remain confidential. In Cuban’s case, there are hackers and crazy fans that are constantly trying to get into his stuff. It makes sense that privacy is a priority of his, more so than the average person. While targeting professionals is a no-brainer, as the niche this app satisfies is the concern of this group of people, Snapchat has such a HUGE market base that Cyber Dust can infiltrate.

The audience of Snapchat goes as follows:

https://www.quora.com/What-is-Snapchats-target-market-and-market-size-and-how-does-it-cater-to-that-market

According to this chart, 60% of Snapchat users are 13-24 years old. As a 22-year-old millennial, I fall into the target market. The most appealing thing about Snapchat is the idea of videos, pictures and messages disappearing shortly after I send them. This makes me more comfortable sending silly, crazy, and sometimes stupid things, and most of the target market (the entire market, really) would agree with that. The idea of a hacker digging up old snaps and sharing them is horrifying. If Cyber Dust can find a way to communicate this with current Snapchat users, as so many are unaware that Snaps are saved on a drive, then Cyber Dust can penetrate Snapchat’s market.

For numbers concerning the size of Snapchat’s market, click the link below.

https://blog.hootsuite.com/snapchat-statistics-for-business/

Competition… Who is it?

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Cyber Dust… an app used to send pictures and messages that disappear after a few seconds. To the average consumer, this sounds an awful lot like Snapchat. While Cyber Dust is a much safer and efficient way to communicate with your friends in terms of security, there are parallels between the two apps.

Both Snapchat and Cyber Dust are free to download in the app store. The biggest appeal about both apps is that the pictures and messages you send disappear after a few seconds. Snapchat was the app that popularized the idea of sending pictures and messages that would not see the light of day ever again in the first place.

Both apps are framed around the 24-hour clock. This incentivizes users to actively engage with the application on a regular basis. Cyber Dust requires opening message within 24 hours after it’s sent before it disappears forever. Snapchat allows for unopened messages to remain in the receiver’s inbox for 30 days before it disappears. However, to ensure regular activity, Snapchat has a “streak” feature, which is an emoji that shows up next to your friend’s name if you engage at least once every 24 hours. The idea is that the longer you maintain your streak, the emojis change to mark your advancement.

The BIGGEST issue that people have with both apps is that they still haven’t resolved the screenshot issue. Sure, both apps let you know that a screen shot has been taken. However, as Marc Cuban stated, the screenshot feature is within the device itself. It has nothing to do with the application. Cyber Dust makes it so that the name of the person you are contacting does not show up on the same screen as the messages to help maintain anonymity in the case a screenshot is taken. However, they are still working on a way to combat this issue.

Introducing Cyber Dust

Marc Cuban, Owner of Dallas Mavericks and television personality on Shark Tank, founded this company because of an issue he has few years ago with the SEC. Hackers found Cuban’s old Snaps and brought them to light. This resulted in legal trouble for Marc, and this prompted him to launch his own encrypted messaging application.

“You know this day in age, I think it’s imperative that you shrink your digital footprints.”
-Marc Cuban, founder