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Blipfoto

20 things you should know about Blipfoto

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

March 9, 2012 | 5 min read

Blipfoto has grown over the last five years from a small network of people sharing their pictures with one another, into an international force to be reckoned with. Here's some info on the site that you should know:

1. Blipfoto - the online photo journal - allows people to tell their stories, through pictures, one day at a time. A fast-growing social media hub, it allows its users to post just one picture a day, taken on that day.

2. Blipfoto is a hugely engaged online community – it already has around 3.5m images shared on the site, with over 21.8m comments - each picture represents a single day in someone's life.

3. Blipfoto was started as a bedroom project by Joe Tree. He spent a few hours on a rainy Sunday afternoon building a really simple website which let him publish just one photo a day on the internet and write something about it. He set himself two simple rules: he could only upload one picture a day, and it had to be taken on that day. Gradually, he built up a loyal following of viewers. They started asking if they could have a copy of the website, or point them somewhere else they could do this. Realising there was nothing out there which did this, he set about extending Blipfoto into something which anyone could sign up to and use. He released a rudimentary version of Blipfoto and invited 15 other people to join in. It let anyone set up a journal of their own, upload one picture a day, write some words, and comment on other people’s material.

4. In 2009 Blipfoto won a BAFTA award, and it has collaborated with a number of big organisations, from governments and theatre companies to the likes of Channel 4 and The Guardian.

5. The BAFTA was a turning point for Blipfoto. It was after picking up the award the founders decided to turn the site into a full time concern. In 2010, Blipfoto secured its first round of outside investment.

6. The site now delivers over 18 million page views a month, with tens of thousands of contributors. And growing at 15% each month...

7. Blipfoto now has contributors in over 170 countries worldwide.

8. Blipfoto is based in Edinburgh

9. Following the success of Life.Turns, the Scottish Government worked with Blipfoto to create a short film celebrating Scotland - The World Over (http://vimeo.com/35916887). From 1,507 entries, the film brings together 715 photos from 32 countries. It was compiled between St Andrews Day and Burns Night. First Minister Alex Salmond recorded a personal message of thanks to all that took part.

10. Membership helps keep Blipfoto completely free from advertising: Blipfoto is entirely free of advertising. And plans to stay that way... While it is free to sign up to Blipfoto, for a small monthly membership a whole host of added extras and functionality is unlocked. Keeping the user - rather than advertisers - at the heart of everything Blip does means it can focus its efforts on protecting the values of the community and making it an even more enjoyable thing to be part of.

11. Blipfoto is the 450th most popular website in Finland.

12. You don't have to take a picture every single day. Although lots of people try to.

13. Last year Blipfoto was voted as the Best website in Scotland by The List Magazine

14. Founder and CEO Joe has just returned from San Francisco, where he spent a week visiting some of the most exciting and creative technology firms in the Silicon Valley, from Google to Storify and from IDEO to Nokia's R&D labs. He was there as the finale of a nine-month Cross Creative programme.

15. From young mums to newspaper editors and from aid workers to private military contractors - it's a diverse group of people that make up the Blipfoto audience.

16. In a previous life, Joe Tree worked on image manipulation for the likes of Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, Harvey Goldsmith and Vivienne Westwood.

17. Ruaridh the wonder dog (and Blip's hairiest staff member) is perhaps the most photographed dog in Scotland. So he claims. (http://www.blipfoto.com/entry/1556141)

18. You can create a personalised 365 page book on Blipfoto in 30 seconds.

19. Blipfoto is different to many other social network in that it encourages users to interact with others across the world that they don't already know. Instead of reaffirming existing relationships, it fosters new ones... As such, Blipfoto encourages fellow "Blippers" to meet up in the real world. Blip Meets have taken place in Japan, China, Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, right across the USA, and all over Europe.

20. Blipfoto founder and CEO, Joe has spoken at SocialMediaWeek, TEDx and Pecha Kucha - and once appeared on stage with Paul Daniels. Now, that's magic.

Blipfoto

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