Razz is stepping up in the game of talking pictures. Today, the startup launches the Talking Photos product, a tool that lets users add their own voice or audio clips to pictures, and then share those pictures with other friends on Facebook. Mashable broke the news this morning.
Two weeks ago, I went to Razz’ office in San Francisco to video-interview Razz’ ceo Jeff Malkin. Razz sees audio-enhanced photo as a great vehicle for people to share emotions online. Razz is all about humor and allowing people to connect around funny pictures. Now that Talking Photos is on Facebook, it becomes really easy to go grab a friend’s photo, add a funny audio clip, and share the fun with other. As you can see in the video, it really takes less than 30 seconds to create and share a talking picture.
I interviewed Mo Kakwan from Blabberize a while back, so I was very curious to know what was going to be so different with Razz. Razz is building a gigantic database of audio-clips, a move inspired by the belief that users will use their product if they can easily find the appropriate audio for a given picture. Plus you can add your voice to a pictures using a microphone, or with your cell phone (they have a mobile past life). This fun Talking Photos tool becomes a business when branded content is used to create and share pictures. Razz enables consumers to play with their favorite movie quotes for example, and share it with their friends. Razz is opening up the Social Media door to brands through its audio-enhanced photo platform.
Talking pictures are considered the greeting cards of the Internet, meaning there is a huge market opportunity behind funny pictures. Many other audio-enhanced photo platforms have developed great tools to make your picture talk, but so far, Razz is the only one focusing on providing an endless source of audio (branded) clips.