This article was published on January 25, 2013

Loopcam pushes its GIF-sharing service in China with a new domain and filter for the Chinese New Year


Loopcam pushes its GIF-sharing service in China with a new domain and filter for the Chinese New Year

Loopcam, an iOS app for creating and sharing GIF animations, is expanding into China today with the launch of a new domain, www.loopcam.cn.

The app’s feed and interface feels not too dissimilar to Vine, the new six second video-sharing app launched by Twitter yesterday. The difference though, of course, is that Loopcam has focused on GIF animations instead, requiring the user to snap a number of photos in quick succession to create what it has coined “loops.”

It’s incredibly quick and simple to use, and the app supports instant sharing to Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr. You can also find new friends to follow through either your Facebook or Twitter account – the former of which has since been blocked for Vine by the Zuckerberg empire.

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Loopcam, backed by Christophe Maire, Felix Pertesen and Passion Capital, among others, has been competing with rival app Cinemagram up until now. The company has claimed today that they have been enjoying “tremendous success” during the fourth quarter of 2012. No figures for either total app downloads or GIF-sharing have been revealed, but the company has pointed to a new Christmas filter as the main reason for its success.

Tor Rauden Källstigen, Loopcam CEO said: “By adding a filter we gave our users a creative framework, which gave truly viral results”.

The team’s expansion into the Chinese market was an obvious move, given that the app has proven popular in cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul. To coincide with the Chinese New Year on February 10, Loopcam is also launching a new filter that will give users the chance to wear a Cantonese hat, accompanied by fireworks and those instantly recognizeable red paper lanterns.

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Vine’s launch will put a lot of pressure on Loopcam, even though Twitter’s new app focuses on short videos rather than GIF animations. The pair both solve the problem of creating and sharing moving images on the Internet, but only one is backed by one of the biggest social networks on the Web.

Loopcam | iOS

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