RIYA IS REVOLUTIONARY

I have been selected to test the alpha version of RIYA, an online photo service with face recognition feature (thanks tara for putting me in the list). Check my previous post for more details.

I will not reveal here anything on the detail of the service and of the many outstanding features of this great service as we were asked to…

What i can tell you is that i am totally impressed by their marketing approach. Ok they have a great product and it is very likely it will raise some jealousy in the industry. But what i really like about them is that it is not just about techno. They are building slowly but surely a great BRAND. I see around me too many “technos” in web 2.0 services and not enough brands. both are very important. RIYA have the potential of a Skype in terms of brand equity and brand recognition:

• great name: short to right and say, although spelling errors could be problematic (did you register RYIA, RYA, RIA, RILLA?)
• great corporate identity: including logo, user interface, corporate blog,
• punchy communication: strong buzz (check the google case, and technorati ratings…), intimate and disruptive tone
• leader and pionneer approach: those guys know they are seating on gold and they claim it. smartly. they know that they bring something no one in the industry has and therefore they use this advantage in their communication. they are right.
• worshipers around: like me, they managed to find (for free!) amabassadors for their name and brand, specially in the blog community. When i like a service, you can be sure i am going to brainwash all my friends with it. starting with you readers….so i will post often about them from now on.
• Gmail approach: a few will have it first and then we ll see. Creating the desire

Great job guys. I can t wait for the launch.

PS: if you guys want to find partnership in Europe or anywhere let me know. I know some people who can help you…

tags technorati : riyarocks riya
tags del.icio.us : riyarocks riya
tags icerocket : riyarocks riya

Comments

[Tara 'Miss Rogue' Hunt]

Hey Ouriel,

I'll be at Les Blogs next week. I don't know if you are around, but I'd love to meet you...European connections? Of course!

Tara

[ouriel]

Hi Tara, unfortunately not, i am quite busy with a launch here in ICQ, but you will meet there some of my good friends starting with Loic, Netanel and Martin. Hope you cross over them.

[Uri L.]

The brand analysis is interesting.

Nobody could really avoid the hype on Riya during the last week, and seems that Miss rogue herself and others already shared pics from the beta on flickr.

Btw, do you know if Riya's buzz had any implication on local fellas www.myheritage.com? They cliam to have their face recognition magic as well...

Technorati didn't show any unique activity about them, but I wonder if they are mentioned when relating to Riya.

(I didn't test their service and don't have any connection with them).

[ouriel]

i heard about my heritage...in myblog i even witnessed a begin of female fight on the comments side...i have seen their website but the application don t seem to be the same and the quality of the service neither.

[Ronit Katz]

Hi Ouriel and Uri L. (nice rhyme),

Recommend that you take a look at this article:
http://www.gideonmarken.com/index.cfm/a/9/blog/566/More_Facial_Recognition_Sites_On_The_Way

Regarding blog activity: http://www.technorati.com/search/myheritage.com currently shows 236 blog articles talking about, and linking to, MyHeritage in the past 30 or so days which is when their site came out.

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=3m&size=medium&compare_sites=&y=r&url=myheritage.com#top shows traffic going to MyHeritage.com according to Alexa (not that accurate but still one of the key available Web traffic metrics).

Riya.com, by comparison, has double the amount of blog articles (currently 467) and, wait for it... just half the amount of actual user traffic, per Alexa (look at weekly rankings of this week and last week). You can see it here:

http://www.technorati.com/search/riya.com

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=3m&size=medium&compare_sites=&y=r&url=riya.com#top

Conclusion: one company has been talking. The other has been programming.

Don't be fooled by the demo that MyHeritage.com provides in its alpha. This company was started a year before Riya and has much under its hood that it will unveil soon, in the areas of face recognition, photo sharing and genealogy.

[ouriel]

Hi Ronit

I am happy to to hear that you have been working hard. honestly i have no interest in defending riya rather than you and believe me if you application is as good riya then you should be very happy cause this market is huge and leave place to anyone. Be a marketing personn i can also tell you that "talking" is as important as "working" specially is your are in b2c market. Alexa and technorati are in no way enough to measure an audience whatsoever. What i can say from an outside point of view is that Riya is doing an examplary communication job.