After a few years of peace, we have a new war about to unfold between Facebook and Houseparty. The last great war brought us incredible innovation and tons of cool social media features. Facebook will be forced to use their collective IQ for something other than invading our privacy.
What is Houseparty?
Their website boasts “A face to face social network.” but it’s much more. It’s a fun place to meet your friends. The way that they’ve structured their notifications stimulates engagement between secondary friend groups. Friends you don’t normally hang with, are online and it’s difficult to escape them. This is the smartest feature but also the reason I don’t personally, like the app as much. The point is, that you don’t go online unless you’re ready for a party, which in real life I rarely am. Even your secondary friends that you don’t normally hang out with are on the app and they are there because they are looking to hang out. I am bored, you are bored, so we might as well party.
What has Facebook done?
According to Tech Cruch, “Launching today on mobile and desktop in English speaking countries, you can start a video chat Room that friends can discover via a new section above the News Feed or notifications Facebook will automatically send to your closest pals. You can also just invite specific friends, or share a link anyone can use to join your Room.”
Essentially, Facebook has again, copied their competitor. As usual, it’s not even a secret.
There will be no offer to buy houseparty out because Facebook is under too much scrutiny. People are pushing antitrust laws and threatening to break Facebook up. They do not want this at all. This scenario will force Facebook to compete with creativity IQ. In the past, they’ve failed in this but are usually able to win using their best and insurmountable asset, 2.5 billion users. In a time where users are losing trust in Facebook, Houseparty does have an opportunity to build some market share. The only problem for Houseparty is that after we’re all released from our homes, they will be forced to use their new audience to create something very cool and engaging.
“The worst part of world crises is that they are inevitable, the best part is that they always end.”
Eric Parent, CEO
How the two apps compete in this modern world will say it all. Houseparty has momentum and agility, the can experiment and pivot quickly. They should use this to their advantage while they have the opportunity. Facebook is not a company that likes to lose. They can sever integrations and limit shareability, they can straight up duplicate your product and push the copy to their users. Doesn’t work? Rebrand and start again. Houseparty’s only option is to capitalize on the creativity and youthful nature of the platform and double down on the fun.
Can Houseparty innovate faster than Facebook?
Let’s chat about it, Schedule a video chat with Eric here
Written by
Eric Parent, CEO
Next Level Digital Media & Marketing, LLC
255 East Drive STE L
Melbourne, FL 32904
