ShoZu
The “Latest news from ShoZu” marketing email I received today from dontreply@shozu.com with the name “Your friends at ShoZu” brings unexpected news. While they must have a some valid business justification for doing so, I believe Shozu may have closed the cellar door with this part of today’s announcement:
Going forward, we will begin charging for the mobile application.
The fee amount was not specified in the announcement. I’m accustomed to sending pictures and video to social media sites using ShoZu, so I’d probably be instantly onboard with paying whatever fee they decide to charge for the mobile application. I’m sure there are others like me who feel much the same way, but we don’t have to pay!
If you’re already a ShoZu user, you’ll be happy to know that there’s no charge to continue using it.
Presumably, existing users don’t have to pay because we already have the application. So, how are new users going to react when they find so many social media sites and third party developers offering free applications? Will a new user break out the credit card and pay for an application if there are free alternatives? Time will tell, but it seems like a bad idea to charge the user for this service.
Will existing users who switch to a new device now be forced to pay even with the promise made to existing users in today’s announcement? Will paid users be able to remove the “uploaded by ShoZu” footer that is embedded with every file sent from the application? These and other questions remain.
Switching from FREE to FEE rarely works on the web. ShoZu provides a unique value in that most popular social media sites are accessible from one application. A platform neutral application is desirable because the average user interacts with mutiple social media sites. Running only one application instead of different applications for each site represents value. This alone makes the case for charging a fee.
Some new features were also added. The service now enables:
- picture messaging (MMS)
- mobile email
- PC and Mac Desktop application
- any PC or Mac email client or webmail service
- the ability to receive updates as well as read and reply to comments directly on your phone in near real-time
- the ability to geo-tag uploads automatically
- the ability to update your status, download feeds, and add tags and descriptions before or after uploading
Certainly, value is represented in these features. Of course, status updates can be made even in WAP browsers or via SMS. With a little knowledge about your own social media site(s) du jour, much of what ShoZu offers can be done via email and SMS, so why even bother with an application?
The jury is out, but I’m not betting on seeing this application becoming as popular as it really should be unless they get a deal with a device maker. Embedding ShoZu to ship as a default application makes sense for everyone.
[ShoZu]
Related Posts
