More Popular Than Pinterest, Say Hello To Thumb

Check out the article about Thumb in AppAdvice!

Called “highly addictive” and “dead simple” by others, Thumb is a social networking service that makes it easy to ask a question and get answers instantly through either the Thumb website or free iPhone app. Recently, AppAdvice had the opportunity to discuss the service with Thumb’s Chief Business Development Officer, Hadley Harris, who discussed what makes his product unique and what he hopes to achieve in the future. By Bryan M. Wolfe.

Thumb

Background

Thumb, which first launched in 2010 as Opinionaided, is actually more popular than other social utilities such as Pinterest and Tumblr. In fact, users are now spending three and a half hours a month requesting and giving opinions on Thumb, versus visitors who only spend an hour and a half per month on those sites.

To put this into more perspective, Google+ users only visit the site three minutes per month!

One On One

AppAdvice: What makes Thumb different than other services in the marketplace?

Hadley Harris: What makes Thumb different from any other app is that it allows users to interact with many people almost instantly.  If you ask a question on Thumb you will get an average of around 70 people’s opinions in a matter of minutes.  If you try doing that on Facebook or Twitter you will only get a couple responses, if you’re lucky.  What’s even better, once you get these opinions you have the opportunity to connect in a private one-on-one conversation with the people who included comments with their response.  Thumb offers a form of communication that has never been possible before.

AppAdvice: What enhancements to the service do you expect to arrive in 2012 and beyond?

Harris: Unfortunately we can’t share much about what’s in our product roadmap but you can expect us to continue to refine Thumb to give users the best possible way to instantly get and give opinions from real people.  We have some features coming out soon that will allow users to better build an investment in the product over time.

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AppAdvice: Who is your target audience?

Harris: Our goal has been to provide a tool to any user that is seeking a high-volume of instant opinions. Currently, we are seeing an audience that skews toward early-adopter, however, we are seeing a trend toward diversification of age and geographic location with a male/female split.

AppAdvice: What are your thoughts on Thumb as it relates to iOS?

Harris: We’re big fans of the iOS platform.  We started with iOS and it continues to be a great ecosystem for us.  Over the next couple months we will be launching quite a few new things on our iOS app, so stay tuned.

To become part of Thumb, visit their website or download their free app today in the App Store.

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February Overall Top Advisors

Thumbs Up to our Top Advisors

February was yet another great month for Thumb users…you asked a ton of
great questions and weighed in with your helpful opinions. We’re again
featuring those of you who have been the very most helpful this past month.

We’re rewarding this month’s Overall Top Advisors with Limited
Edition Good Advisor Star T-Shirts and stickers so please make sure you email
community@thumb.it with your address.

The users above are just the handful of Thumb users who achieved the status of
Overall Top Advisor. Check out the full Top Advisors by Category section to see
if you’re featured!

Rule of Thumb

Did you know you can easily filter the topics to see just the categories that
interest you most? When voting, click the “funnel” button on the
top right and uncheck the categories that don’t pique your interest.
You’ll be left with topics with which you can’t wait to engage!

It’s also very important that you enter your correct birthdate. Our
system automagically displays the most relevant content for your user profile,
which makes your experience on Thumb even better. Win-win!

Questions, comments, concerns? Leave your feedback on our Facebook
page…we’re checking it daily as your suggestions help make
Thumb even better.

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Filed Under: Top Advisors

Thumb Offers A Reality Test For SXSW

After all the parties are over and the hangovers subside, each year following SXSW Interactive, the tech industry’s yearly festival highlighting the best and brightest in emerging technology, bloggers and techies around the world start the debate over what is the breakout hit of the year. The real question, however, is whether these technologies make it outside of the circle and into the hands of real people. And that is just the question Thumb asked its users. Here are the apps that Thumb users are most excited by:

Also check out Anthony Ha’s coverage in TechCrunch.

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Filed Under: Community, Press

Thumb is So Hot it’s Seeing Twice the Engagement of Pinterest, Steals its Own VC

Check out the article in VentureBeat by Devindra Hardawar:

 

Thumb is So Hot it's Seeing Twice the Engagement of Pinterest

 

Just a few months after the mobile Q&A company Opinionaided rebranded itself as Thumb, it’s already seeing significant engagement gains — so much so that its users are twice as addicted as Pinterest’s.

Thumb is on such a tear that it has managed to tempt one of its own investors away from the cushy life of venture capital. Harris (below), former head of business at Vlingo (which was recently acquired by Nuance) and a founding partner in NYC’s ENIAC Ventures (the initial seed investor in Thumb), is now joining the company in the newly created role of chief business development officer.

Former Head of Business at Vlingo joins Thumb “I think they [Thumb] have the opportunity to build something special here… it was a unique opportunity to join,” Harris told VentureBeat in an interview last week.

Harris told me that the Thumb’s users are now spending an average of 3 hours and 50 minutes on its mobile app every month, up from three and a half hours back in December. That’s engagement second only to Facebook. Pinterest, the much-hyped online image sharing site, meanwhile only sees around 97.8 minutes of engagement per month, according to figures from ComScore.

The Thumb app allows you to ask questions and get instant responses from the company’s highly engaged user base. You can also give your opinion on other questions from others. Back in December, users were seeing around 70 responses on average to their questions, a number that’s likely higher now.

It’s simple, but addictive, and that seems to be the key to Thumb’s success.

It was Thumb’s crazy amount of user interaction that sparked Harris’s interest. After he led Vlingo to 10 million users and a “huge exit,” he stepped down from the company and was planning to settle down into the life of a VC, focusing on mobile apps and services. But after serving as an adviser to Thumb (back when it was known as Opinionaided) for years and seeing their massive engagement numbers, he couldn’t help but climb aboard.

“This can scale and become a full-blown social network,” he told VentureBeat, echoing what we heard from CEO Dan Kurani in December. “Opinions are more valuable than interest,” Kurani said at the time, referring to Facebook’s emphasis on user interest.

As head of biz dev, Harris will focus on growing Thumb’s user base. He’ll also be working on strategic partnerships. Brands, for example, could be interested in getting a rush of instant opinions from consumers.

Thumb is based in New York City and has raised around $5.5 million across two rounds of funding.

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