WYDIF: The French startup with the best online video

Innovation

Let me preface this by saying first that I have seen a lot of French startups. But I definitely haven’t seen them all. If there is one thing that many French companies are getting better at, it’s social marketing. Last year, I published a little list of some of my favorite Youtube videos published by French startups. But I have to say that the one I’m presenting now takes the cake – by far.

Let me preface this by saying first that I have seen a lot of French startups. But I definitely haven’t seen them all. If there is one thing that many French companies are getting better at, it’s social marketing. Last year, I published a little list of some of my favorite Youtube videos published by French startups. But I have to say that the one I’m presenting now takes the cake – by far.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmXTW8nqM0A]

WYDIF: Would You Do It For

By simply watching the film, you’d probably think that WYDIF was part of the Silicon Valley in-crowd. Then again, with a 5-word name and unpronounceable acronym, it’s perhaps obvious that this startup isn’t part of the 2-syllable all American gang (unless you pronounce the acronym “why-diff”). But regardless of what I think of this startup’s name, their video is really well done and rather entertaining.

A platform with a hidden purpose.

In all fairness, the makers of the platform did not know that I was going to write about it. So I don’t blame them for the glitches and the bugs. But when I first arrived on the platform, prior to signing up, it was difficult for me to know what it was really all about. The name made the think there was gamification involved somehow – and the little explanation on the site told me that it was supposed to help motivate me to accomplish my goals. OK. But then once I actually logged-in to the site, the one thing that I noticed was that I was not really prompted to do anything. I had to click around and kind of feel my way around the platform myself. Hmm…

Twitter meets Craigslist meets TaskRabbit meets Quora?


So it may seem a little odd for me to be writing about a company without having all the details first. I didn’t interview the founders or read any press releases. I’m basing my entire opinion on the current product and online experience. To me, the site seems like it combines a lot of different social elements to help people leverage their social networks to get the information or the services and help that they need, à la TaskRabbit. There is a bit of gamification mixed in (you can reward someone with a badge instead of a monetary payment) but the messaging is somewhat unclear. All in all, I think it’s potentially a great idea – but it could be difficult to monetize (I think monetization could be a commission on monetary transfers via the platform, not sure). Anyhow, enjoy the video and give it a go if you don’t manage to find the help you need on Fiverr (the French equivalent to Fiverr, Paboum, seems to have been shut down. *snif*)