ARCHIVES: This is legacy content from before Marketing Dive acquired Mobile Marketer in early 2017. Some information, such as publication dates, may not have migrated over. Check out the new Marketing Dive site for the latest marketing news.

Forbes? Camerama acquisition targets specialized groups of users on mobile

Forbes Media?s acquisition of Camerama, a private photo-sharing application, may help the publisher of Forbes Magazine engage consumers on mobile through new products alongside its core editorial operation, as revenue remains a fraction of what it was in the heyday of print.

With Camerama, a cloud-based photo exchanging network where only invited friends can see uploaded photos, Forbes is following in the footsteps of the New York Times and other traditional publishers by seeking to leverage new mobile products to drive revenue. Showing that the strategy has yet to take hold, the Times last year announced it would shut down NYT Opinion, a mobile app dedicated to opinion content, because it was not attracting enough subscribers.

?Our app strategy is in lines with creating community interest,? said Lewis D?vorkin, chief product officer at Forbes Media. ?This is not a distribution platform for Forbes content.

?However, related content will appear on it,? he said. ?In terms of communities, we?re focused on our Under 30, investing and other professional audiences.? 

Private albums
Camerama allows users to create and share virtual cameras with friends. Photos are shared the instant they are taken, and friends can like and comment on them in private albums.

Forbes' mobile app.

Camerama aims to eliminate the frustration that accompanies emailing, messaging and file-sharing platforms. Moreover, it strives to provide a private social-media forum for viewing posted photos.

Forbes has been leveraging new products for some time to reach mobile users.

Its efforts have included adding a new way for its readers to interact with content in its mobile application via a feature called ?Stream.?

Stream enabled readers to share images and text from Forbes? mobile issues across traditional social networks as well as within an internal social network for Forbes enthusiasts. 

Stream was a mini-social network for Forbes readers that showed a newsfeed of Forbes images and text that readers found particularly interesting. Readers could clip any content they wanted from the mobile issue and then share it via the public-facing Stream or a personal stream.

Readers could also share clipped content via other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr and Evernote, as well as via email and iMessages.

When readers clicked on a clip in Stream they were directed back to the source of that clip. 

Under the Camerama deal, terms of which were not disclosed, Camerama?s founder, Salah Akram Zalatimo, will join the company as vice president of mobile products. He will take charge of building on Forbes' mobile strategy by developing a platform of apps for the company, leveraging the core technology that served as the foundation of Camerama.

The goal will be to build passionate communities under the Forbes umbrella ? the kind that marketers want to reach and that generate valuable and relevant content, Forbes said in a release. The plan is to develop mobile-first apps for niche social networks rooted in the Forbes brand.

To engage mobile audiences, content providers are impelled to look at community-sharing capabilities, especially those specializing in photos and videos.

Bigger phones
?With phone screens increasing in size, Forbes gets to increase its visual content created by the market itself, in the form of the communities that share the photos,? said Chuck Martin, CEO of the Mobile Future Institute, Boston.  

Reaching out to mobile users.

?In addition to traditional written content, Forbes gets another asset allowing them to expand its visual content.?

Final Take
Michael Barris is staff reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York