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- Dispo, the new invite-only photo-taking app is becoming increasingly popular.
- According to Axios, the app has been valued at $200 million.
- The app’s creator, David Dobrik, wants users to have a more authentic experience when taking photos
- Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.
For the last 10 years, Instagram has dominated the photo app scene, but now its potential rival has arrived.
Dispo, a new, invite-only app, offers users a more authentic approach to taking photos by bringing disposable cameras back into fashion, but in digital form.
The app has attracted significant buzz since its launch in February, becoming the fourth most downloadable app on the App Store, as reported by Entrepreneur.
According to Axios, the app is valued at about $200 million.
The simple concept helps it stands out among competitors, including Google photos, CNBC reports.
Users can take as many photos as they like, but unlike Instagram, the photos cannot be edited with filters, stickers, and texts and cannot be accessed immediately until the photos have been "developed," as reported by CNBC. The photos can be accessed the following morning at 9 a.m.
Dispo users can also choose whether they would like to post their pictures in a solo or a 'shared' roll with other people.
The idea is that users will enjoy their experiences while fully in the moment and without receiving immediate gratification. This makes Dispro the 'anti-Instagram' social media platform, according to BuzzFeed.
Entrepreneur's report quoted Dispo user Terry O'Neal as saying: "Instagram turned everyone into general photographers. Dispo makes you a photographer with a purpose. That is where the construction of the community is: everyone seeks the same thing through their own lens."
In a recent interview with The New York Times, David Dobrik, a popular YouTuber and creator of Dispo, discussed why he purposely limited the options. He said: "When I used to go to parties with my friends, they had disposable cameras all over the house, and they invited people to take pictures at night. In the morning, they would pick up all the cameras, look back at the footage and say, 'What happened last night?'
The proliferation of invite-only apps has been rising in recent months. Founded in 2020, Clubhouse, an invite-only chatting app, disrupted the social media landscape. The app creates a space for users to meet up to host, tune in, and in some circumstances, join conversations within a community consisting of venture capitalists, celebrities, journalists, and more.