Social media has taken a new turn. Not only do celebrities use social media these days, they create their own version of it. Or at least, Taio Cruz has.
Social media has taken a new turn. Not only do celebrities use social media these days, they create their own version of it. Or at least, Taio Cruz has.
KeWe is the first release from his development firm, Tourean, which was founded in 2012 by the celebrity and focuses on music, design, events and technology. The name is derived from the phrase “key to the we,” which I have taken to mean the key to connecting people (because honestly, otherwise, the phrase doesn’t actually make sense!).
Doesn’t sound like Facebook
The app was released last week and its main attraction is supposedly its speed – that you can instantly search, instantly communicate and receive updates in real time. Sounds exactly like Facebook, right?
Well, wrong. It’s actually meant to be a combination of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Foursquare, providing one place where you can access all of the features, instead of having to use separate apps for everything.
As soon as you download KeWe, you will notice its similarity to a number of social networks. Its main home page looks essentially like the Facebook news feed, and profile pages look like a mash-up of Twitter and Facebook, as you have the opportunity to both “follow” someone and “connect” with someone. You can make your posts public or private, so they’re either only shared with your close friends and family (i.e. those you’re connected to) or everyone, like you would on Twitter (i.e. those who follow you).
The level you wish to connect on
Cruz has said that he wants the new platform to provide messaging and a social network, but also allow you to choose what “level” you wish to connect on.
Other features include a multimedia messaging function, everything being searchable, and instant sharing of updates, photos and videos. And of course, the photos and videos have filters Instagram may even become jealous of. For me, KeWe’s unique selling point is its “who is around me” map, which looks a bit like FourSquare but in addition adds your location (if you choose to share it) in real-time, so you can find your friends if you wish.
Very clever ideas
The fantastic thing about this new app too, is that it doesn’t deny the existence of other social networks either. It makes full use of Facebook and Twitter, allows you to share your KeWe posts on these different platforms, and you can invite your friends to the new network.
It has a “popular” section at the top of the sidebar, which closely resembles Twitter’s “trending” feature, and the rest of the layout tries to remain as simple as possible, with a name and profile picture required to be provided at minimum, and you can optionally add a background photo, your gender and a bio.
The ideas behind KeWe are actually pretty clever, and the features all seem to work fluidly together and aren’t clunky – probably due to the app’s simplicity. However, it will be interesting to see whether the combination of already-present features will actually make the app successful. After all, if you can already do all of these things on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and FourSquare, why wouldn’t you use the well-established apps? Also, KeWe doesn’t yet have a web version, which is one of its drawbacks.
We shall see if KeWe comes up with some unique ideas to give it an edge, but let’s watch this space. We shouldn’t destroy a new idea before we’ve given it a chance.
What do you think of KeWe? Have your say in the comments section below, on Facebook or on Twitter.
