Raccoon, a new app from Wattpad, lets users share personal stories in 60 second videos.

Talking heads

Users of Raccoon find amusement with videos of everyday folks telling stories to camera. They can browse topics and themes to find stories of interest.

Authors add stories, and piggyback on trends with weekly topics set by admins. Wattpad emphasises ‘funny and inspiring’, but it’s left to the author community to fulfil the promise.

The mid-September update of Raccoon added the ability to ‘Follow’ storytellers and receive notifications when they post new stories. Really, this should always have been in.

Platform performance

Raccoon unites Wattpad’s traditional focus on stories with their growing expertise in tech. But, does it work?

Raccoon is free on both iOS and Android. In the Play Store, it’s had fewer than 5000 installs. On the Aussie App Store, it’s not on the Apps chart, nor even the narrow Books category popular list.

Forecast

It launched in August and we gave it a month before passing judgement. Raccoon lacks momentum.

In the age of Facebook, perhaps such focussed social concepts will always struggle for traction.

Why put another app on your phone when you could simply record a video, up it to YouTube and repost it to social networks your friends and connections already use?

Is Facebook to niche social apps what Walmart is to main street retail?

Copy Transmission is a Melbourne-based agency :: Better Brands. Loud & Clear.