U-based company ArmorActive launched more than just the iPad accessories they specialize in when they introduced social networking app Voto. The iPhone-based feature allows users to rate their favorite of a series of photos. Since its inception, the app has rapidly expanded in both private and commercial use, which Voto founder Scott Paul said is a credit to the app’s usable interface.
“Pictures go across language lines,” said Paul, a graduate student in business. “That’s one of the things that’s making the app so popular. Anyone can look at Voto and figure out, ‘OK, there’s four pictures. I’m supposed to rate them.’ It’s useful because it’s so simple.”
The application is based on Instagram but divided into two or four pictures that the user would like to have rated. The receiving user or users rate their favorite and send the results back. With more than 100,000 users, the company was ranked in the top 25 most used apps, beating out veteran Google+ and gaming app Draw Something. The perennial question of “What looks best?” permeates so many cultures that the app has even spread to Israel, a market Paul said is one of Voto’s biggest.
“I use Voto because I feel like my opinion means something, and time passes fast when I use it,” said Voto user Ahmad Tellingston, who lives in Israel. “I also use it to ask new people for their opinion, because sometimes your friends and family will not tell you the truth because they are afraid it will offend you.”
For industries that depend on visual market research, Paul said Voto is invaluable. Companies like Luxottica, the maker of Oakley and Ray Ban sunglasses, Nordstrom and designer Shaun Neff have all begun using Voto to get feedback from their customers.
“Retail places love the app,” Paul said. “Luxottica wants to put up iPads in their stores with Voto on them so that customers can send pics to their friends to decide which shades look best. Big fashion cities like New York, Miami and Chicago have a ton of Voto use.”
Recently, Utah has become a hot spot for tech companies. Utah County’s new Adobe building, Salt Lake City’s EA Games and the U’s top-ranked Entertainment Arts and Engineering program are only a few on the list of top-shelf companies outside of Silicon Valley. Despite the existence of such established companies, the state has not produced one of the breakthrough social networking applications that characterize the early 2010s. Paul said a distinctly Utahn attraction to social media could help Voto become a first of its kind: a native Utahn social networking app.
“Utah is huge on social stuff. We’re the biggest YouTubers, we were one of the first to take an interest in Pinterest. We have really dedicated consumers here. This could be our big breakthrough to put Utah on the map as far as consumer social networking goes,” he said.
Already, Voto’s growth has exceeded its small beginning as a research tool for ArmorActive. Paul estimates the current value of the company somewhere between $5 and $10 million, with app users coming out of the woodwork from Israel to South Korea. Voto is not the only one of such photo rating apps. Paul said there are at least four more, but that Voto is five times the size of the nearest competitor.
“We’re kind of the 800-pound gorilla in the photo rating world,” said Paul.
Because there are no Utah companies from which to take advice, Paul said he might consider a move to Silicon Valley in order to stay close to the top talent. The company plans on making Voto compatible with Android and web-based interfaces to reach more consumers.