Discover Movies Socially with CouchPotato.be
Watching films is a modern day social activity. Minus the few reclusive people that like to watch movies on their own, for the majority of people around the world, going to the cinema on a weekend with friends is a popular social activity.
Couchpotato.be, a product by 1985, is working to leverage another phenomenon, namely online social media, to make the
experience of finding movies more social. In a conversation with Prakash Raman, he introduced us to an innovative interest specific social media platform and revealed to us, what quite frankly is, an inspirational motive for starting up and coming up with the couchpotato.be project.The Features
For the large majority of people who do not fall under the influence of a movie’s marketing campaign, their incentive to watch a movie is from the recommendations from the people they know. Couchpotato.be facilitates just that. Here are some key features on the platform that makes for a very interactive way of discovering movies to watch –
i) A recommendation functionality called “Watch List” where a user can announce the movies, they recommend people to watch through the functionality
ii) Users can view the recommendations of their Facebook friends.
iii) Users can follow others on the platform and access their Watch List
iv) A wish list feature called “Remind List” which reminds users movies that want to watch
1985 has used the Rotten Tomato API, Twitter Bootstrap - UI Framework and RedBean ORM for couchpotato.be.
The Benefits
So having used the platform for a week or so, 2 things stood out. The movies that couchpotato.be suggested to us was exactly to our liking and there wasn’t a single bad recommendation. Furthermore it’s a social network. Within a few days, through following people with interesting Watch Lists, we could find some movies that we would have otherwise never known of.
It does take time to realize the point of the application, but over time, it makes more sense to use it to find out new movies to watch.
Our verdict, we love it and if you’re a movie buff, this app is for you.
The People
Prakash Raman and P S Sharath held senior engineering and management positions at Atlantis and Invensoft respectively. Having worked for about 4 years, the duo decided to work on something that they’ve always wanted to do; couchpotato.be. To support the expenses generated by this product, the pair also have an IT services company, 1985.
While Prakash has conveyed intentions of monetizing the couchpotato.be platform, he is quick to admit that it was never built to make money; he built it along with Sharat as it was something that he always wanted to do and the cost of couchpotato.be is completely borne by them.
Along with their product, the motive behind its making is inspiring. The team at 1985 has taken a brave initiative and we wish them all the best for their future.
Are you a movie buff? Check out www.couchpotato.be
