Is this the next big social network?

IT’S the social network you’ve never heard of but it’s climbing the rankings in Apple’s App Store.

In fact Pheed is the number one most downloaded free app in the App Store under the social networking category, outranking both Facebook and Twitter.

And it’s been that way for more than a week.

So what is Pheed and how does it work?

Well, it’s a social network that works much the same way as Facebook or Instagram. You sign up, either with an email address or a Facebook or Twitter login, you follow people and people follow you back. You can comment on people’s posts and they can comment on yours.

It looks and feels like a more sophisticated Instagram.

But unlike its competitors, Pheed lets you post audio files as well as videos up to four hours in length. You can upload pictures of any size. Naturally, plain test posts are also allowed.

Importantly, on Pheed you own your content. The social network’s terms of service state (in all CAPS no less) that: “PHEED USERS OWN THEIR CONTENT. WE DO NOT OWN OR APPLY ANY CLAIM TO YOUR CONTENT. WE DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO SELL OR TRADE YOUR CONTENT. WHAT USERS UPLOAD TO PHEED IS THEIR OWNERSHIP AND THEY HAVE FULL RIGHTS TO IT. YOU ARE THE SOLE OWNER AND CURATOR OF YOUR MATERIALS. WE WILL NOT SELL, LICENSE, DISTRIBUTE, COPY, MODIFY, DISPLAY, TRANSMIT, PUBLISH, EDIT, ADAPT, CREATE DERIVATIVE WORKS FROM, OR OTHERWISE MAKE UNAUTHORIZED USE OF YOUR MATERIALS.”

It also gives users control over their content by putting it behind a paywall. Users can charge followers from $ 1.99 up to $ 34.99 a month to view their feed. Naturally, Pheed gets a cut of the profits. The network also lets users watermark their content as a preventative measure against plagiarism or theft.

The celebrity uptake has been pretty quick. Celebs like Leona Lewis, Paris Hilton and Chloe Moretz are already using the service. But soon you might have to pay to follow them.

Early adopting celebrities might be great as a marketing tool but it’s questionable whether people would be willing to pay to get their content when they can already access it for free on sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Nonetheless, Pheed might be the one to watch over the coming weeks.
 

NEWS.com.au | Technology News

Is this the next big social network?