For some years now, it seems that the past has been in fashion: terms such as “retro” or “vintage” to designate clothes, furniture and numerous objects of various kinds are very familiar to us. And it seems that this trend is not only continuing, but is spreading to more and more fields, including social networks. A clear example of this is Dispo, the new platform that resembles the disposable cameras of yesteryear, the ones where you had to wait until the next day for your photos to be developed. Yes, exactly as it sounds.
On Dispo, the pictures you take can’t be viewed until 24 hours later, and there are no editing tools with filters, nor can you add text or tagging. Reality as it is, no trick or gimmick. That’s what Dispo is all about, promoting spontaneity and putting aside the apparent or illusory.
This new photo application does allow the creation of public or private photo albums, called “Rolls”, which the user can share with friends. Users can also ‘like’ and comment on other users’ images, but not in private chat conversations.
Nostalgic youtuber rescues the disposable camera
David Dobrik, the world-famous Slovakian-born youtuber who rose to success with the now defunct Vine platform, is the creator of Dispo. It all started when Dobrik and his friends took to using disposable cameras at their parties to capture certain moments.
Apparently, being able to retrieve the images afterwards was a way of prolonging the fun, as they didn’t even remember what the snapshots reflected… Dobrik compares it to the end of the film “Hangover in Vegas”, but the truth is that this habit shared with his party mates inspired the creation of the Dispo platform, at the end of 2019.
From that moment on, Dobrik started promoting the new photo app on networks such as Instagram, and the support of other influencers took care of the rest: the app’s advertising momentum was set in motion.
A sure-fire leap into the market
A few months after its market launch, Dispo was the fourth most downloaded app in the Apple Store, with 10,000 users – the highest for its latest version. The platform is run by Dobrik and a team of seven people, with financial backing from powerful investors such as Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of the giant Reddit forum.
After the four million in funding it raised in autumn 2020, serving as a focus that attracted venture capital funds, its current valuation is approaching $100 million.
Currently, the Dispo platform can only be accessed by invitation from a user with an account, or by signing up to a waiting list. This is because Dispo is still under development, and a massive influx of users would jeopardise the application.
Opinions on the future of Dispo are somewhat extreme. Some are wary of a platform that goes against society’s need for immediacy. Others, on the other hand, see this attempt to rescue nostalgia and naturalness, to the detriment of frenetic pace and stereotypical poses, as a trump card. But if Dispo ends up succeeding, will it do so just because it is “different”, or because it will succeed in transmitting in the networks the general need to “step on the brakes”? This is the question…