Offering users two more seconds of recording time than Vine and promising a better social experience than rival platforms, start-up video messaging app Ocho is drawing both believers and investors including Mark Cuban and Vice Sports.
Ocho is available for iOS and there's no word on any plan to invite Android users onto the social media platform. Its developers claim the social media app delivers on features that rival products can't seem to piece together into a cohesive experience.
"There really isn't anything out there that's just a solid social video platform," says Ocho.
Ocho was built and developed by Jonathan Swerdlin and Jourdan Urbach. The app serves up an eight-second video in a feed and promises users won't experience any buffering time, a feat made none too difficult by the brevity of each clip.
While Ocho caps video at eight seconds, users can import longer videos and use the app to bring them in bounds. Longer videos can be sped up and compacted, using a time lapse feature.
Along with the cap on video duration, Ocho pushes the HD standard by mandating the capture of content with an aspect ratio of 16:9.
Ocho's other video tools includes brightness filters, audio control and support for narration. For those wondering how eight second clips can possible lend themselves to meaningful narration, users will have up to 240,000 words to describe any one clip: 30 frames per second, multiplied by eight seconds, multiplied by the thousand words a single picture is said to warrant.
Right now, Ocho can link user content to other social media platforms. However, it lacks embedding support from any site or social networking platform.
Ocho is still young, so there's plenty of time for the social networking site to fully support "re-Ochoing" -- that's what Ocho is calling the sharing of its content.
With the finances pouring in under Ocho's foundation from a number of angelic capitalists, Ocho's success will depend more on user adoption than other startups whose failure to launch can be attributed largely to financing and marketing.
Venture capitalist Mark Cuban is Ocho's main angel helping with the initial $1.65 million seed investment. The Dallas Mavericks owner says he's "thrilled" to see Ocho's community spring to life.
"Ocho is redefining the way we share our stories through creating a powerful, video-based social network in a way that hasn't been possible until now," says Cuban.
