StumbleUpon's first acquisition, 5By, has made its mobile app debut for Apple iPhone and iPad users in Canada.
Montreal-based video concierge startup 5by has made its first move since it was acquired by StumbleUpon, an online destination for exploring digital content from various domains, last month. 5By launched its first iOS mobile application, but only for users in Canada, suggesting it is the first step toward its future in mobile business.
The video concierge collates videos of various genres to best suit a user's mood. With most Internet users relying on smartphones and tablet PCs, it is clearly a smart move to enter the mobile market with a dedicated application. This will rope in more users for 5by and hopefully take the company in the profitable direction. But the firm says it believes in starting small.
"We wanted to walk before we could run," Founder Greg Isenberg told BetaKit. "Canada is a really good test market, so we're going to spend the next however long it takes to optimize the app, make sure people really love it and once we're ready we'll do a big worldwide release. We also wanted to give Canadians first dibs on it."
Isenberg notes that the app is a bridge for users to kill boredom, an important factor left out in many other services including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Its focus and core is pure entertainment.
"Lets face it, today in the video space there's hundreds of millions of videos out there," he said. "And I think that this interface really conquers that problem in a really simple way."
5By scans through billions of videos on the internet to bring the best ones to its users. Isenberg is determined that the mobile transition will work out best in the company's favor, its goal since the beginning.
Users can download the app from Apple App Store.
