Dispo, a new photo-sharing app that mimics the experience of using a disposable camera, is launching fast. People like invitations to test the beta version. Early adopters praise its social characteristics. And investors are betting big on its future.
In the app, users frame photos through a small rectangular viewfinder. There are no editing tools or captions; when the images ‘develop’ – ie appear on your phone at 09:00 the next day – you get what you get. Multiple people can take photos on the same roll, as can happen with a real throwaway camera during a party.
“When I went to parties with my friends, they would have discarded cameras all over the house, and they would force people to take pictures through the night,” said David Dobrik, a YouTube star and founder of the app, said. “In the morning, they collected all the cameras and looked back at the footage and said, ‘What happened last night? ” (He used an explicit to emphasize.)
He and his friends loved the tranquility of flipping through fleeting and forgotten moments. “It would be like the end of ‘The Hangover’ every morning,” he said. Dobrik (24) said. He started posting his developed photos in June 2019 on a dedicated Instagram account and quickly picked up millions of followers. Other influencers and celebrities, including Tana Mongeau and Gigi Hadid, soon started their own ‘disposable’ accounts; their fans followed.
Mr. Dobrik, seeing a trend, is trying to recreate the disposable camera experience digitally, as an antidote to the obsession to get the perfect shot. “You never looked at the picture, you also never checked the lighting,” he said. “You just went on with your day and in the morning you had to relive it.”
In December 2019, he launches a photo app called David’s Disposable, which allows people to take retro photos that ‘develop’ overnight. Its early onset suggested that the model has greater potential. Over the course of a year, it developed into Dispo, a full-fledged social network that began beta testing with the public last Friday.
Although Dispo’s latest version was available to the public for less than a week, it’s already arousing excitement. The app climbed into Apple’s App Store this week. Dispo-themed venues have appeared on Clubhouse. YouTubers share reviews, invitation signing tips, and growth hacks. Just as VSCO gave rise to the VSCO girl, Dispo produced a stable of ‘Dispo boys’. Some pictures of Dispo have even reached the online art market as NFTs, or ‘nonfungible tokens’.
The beta users of the app praised their self-control. “I feel like photos are just simpler,” said Goldie Chan, 38, founder of Warm Robots, a social strategy agency in Los Angeles. Apps like Clubhouse are literally so noisy. If you have something like Dispo or VSCO, just take pictures. You can snap a moment in time and let it go. ‘
This move away from highly compounded feeds has been in the works for several years. In 2019, the rise of ‘trusted’ YouTubers like Emma Chamberlain helped carry the groundbreaking work of a stupid and respectful editing style that became the standard for Gen Z. And during 2020, TikTok gave life to a new wave of creators who focused more on personality than perfection.
“Where Instagram filters made everyone beautiful in 2011, TikTok filters make everyone ugly in 2021,” Rex Woodbury, a principal at Index Ventures, recently wrote. “And where Instagram has given you filters to make your bad photos look good, Dispo deliberately makes your good photos look worse.”
Anyha Garcia, a 31-year-old stay-at-home mom in Utah, started using Dispo a week ago. She is a fan of its simplicity. “I don’t have to sit down and cut or edit it,” she said. ‘I’m taking a picture, and hopefully it turns out. I can go back later and look at it instead of looking at it now and making these adjustments or worrying about taking another 10 to 12 photos of the thing I’m trying to take a picture of. ”
People also applied the app’s emphasis on collaboration. ‘Insta made everyone a general photographer. Dispo makes you a photographer with a purpose, ‘says Terry O’Neal, 31, a Los Angeles-based brand manager who uses the app. He created several camera roles with color themes and asked other users to help him find objects that match each theme. ‘This is where the community building is. “Everyone is looking for the same thing through their own lens,” he said.
“The biggest thing with Dispo is the collaborative roles,” said Luke Yun, 31, a social media director in Los Angeles. ‘People find ways to be creative together. It’s like an innate match to create each other in these community roles I’ve never seen on any social network. “
Although Dispo’s photos do not have captions, the comment sections of collaborative camera roles can be vivid. There are roles where people are invited to guess the story behind each photo, or comment with lyrics that they feel match the mood of an image. Another role contains photos of handwritten notes intended to spark conversations.
The social network has avoided the spammy growth-hack culture that often appears in early shows, and Easter eggs in the show make fun of the obsession to raise the bar. It looks like Mr. Dobrik, for example, has 69 million followers and photos and 420 likes on Dispo.
Small creative collectives, however, arose. “I created a role called Dispo Hype Group where we all added and accepted everyone’s invitation,” she said. Garcia said. The group, which includes about 40 people, hopes to arrange an IRL meeting when it is safe.
Dispo has already started to expand internationally, especially in Japan, where the company plans to open an office. Although it is currently only an eight-person company, the rapid expansion of the business has made it an attractive target for venture capitalists.
In a seed financing round in October, led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s firm Seven Seven Six, Dispo raised $ 4 million. According to Axios, the company raised $ 20 million this week at a valuation of $ 200 million in a Series A financing round led by Spark Capital. According to The Information, Dispo also held talks with other large companies, including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Benchmark.
As the app continues to grow, Dispo’s leaders have pledged to ensure the app remains a safe and open space for its users. “Trust and security are something that is incredibly important to us and will be a constant focus,” said Daniel Liss, 32, Dispo’s CEO. “It is not good enough to say that we do not have confidence and security. It is unacceptable to our community and shareholders.”
“This is a position I call for before any investor asks me about it, because it’s important to me, David and our team,” he added.
Although there will always be competition and copies, Mr. Dobrik which Dispo offers something that photo filters can not repeat.
“When you see a disposable photo, you know it’s real and it’s not made or put together, ‘he said. “It just happened and it was caught. This is what makes it so exciting. ”