2 Chinese entrepreneurs seek a global hit with app that blends Instagram and Medium

What do you do when you have a bunch of photos to share that you took today? You could use Instagram, but it feels so fragmented. You could write a blog, but that sounds like too much effort. You could post them to Facebook, but you’d like to add a few words for some of the photos. You could post them to Flickr, but it’s not 2005. So what options are left?

A pair of entrepreneurs based in Seattle hopes that people will turn to their app, Pixotale, when they have a story they want to tell that revolves around photos. After testing it out, I’d say it feels like a mix of Instagram and Medium, with a hint of one of those travel diary apps thrown in.

Robert Mao started Pixotale last summer with business partner Li Haitao. They both hail from China and are both former employees of Microsoft Research. It’s Mao’s first US-based startup, but he has entrepreneurial experience with two startups in China before his stints with Microsoft Research in the US and Europe.

This ambitious social network comes a year after the duo started creating a bunch of photo apps with neat special effects – such as Levitagram, which makes it appear that the subject is floating in the air – under the Pixomobile brand. Those paid apps are now serving to keep the startup’s lights on as the team focuses on growing Pixotale. “It’s 90 percent of our focus now,” Mao tells Tech in Asia.

Mao concedes that Pixotale probably won’t bring in any revenue for a few years – just like most social media ventures.

China a “difficult” prospect

Whereas most social networks are about connections, Mao says Pixotale is about helping people convey a “long-form visual story.” He also calls them narrative galleries. These can include images and videos, and there’s the option for text, polls, as well as embedded maps. There is a web app – which might be useful for sharing the link through a messaging app (here’s one I just made) – but the emphasis is on the app.

Each “story” created in Pixotale can be shared to several other apps and channels, like Facebook or WhatsApp.

There’s also a social network element built into the service, allowing you to browse other users’ submissions, ‘like’ them, and add comments. It feels a bit like Medium’s app, down to swiping either left or right to explore more. There’s no way to follow individuals at the moment. It already has a strong rival in the form of Storehouse.

Mao says Pixotale has users (he declined to disclose how many exactly) in more than 30 countries right now – but not many of those people are in his native China. The app supports Chinese – as well as social sharing to Weibo and WeChat – but the app lacks any Chinese servers, making it very slow in the country.