This is a response to an article I read earlier this year about the social networking app “Path“.

If you are not from Indonesia, you might not be familiar with Path. Born and raised in Jakarta, Path made its way into my social networking life seamlessly throughout my high school years. However, only when I moved to Vancouver is when I realized the difference. One big one was: NO ONE barely anyone uses Path outside of Indonesia. Indonesia is the world’s largest Path user base with more than 4 million users, however, why is it not catching on anywhere else in the world?

While a quick Google search can tell you what Path is and what they do, it might not tell you that they have failed to live up to its initial hype after launching in November 2010. Path was initially a supplementary network to Facebook for people to enjoy a more intimate social network setting with a smaller number of quality friends and contacts. At its launch, the number of friends a user could have on Path was only 50. Yup, 50 friends. The application also allows users to update their stream (similar to a Facebook home page) by posting photos and adding tags for people, places and other things.

However overtime, the app has evolved a lot by adding more features and minor changes. For example, they added Path Talk – a standalone messaging app (that was later on streamlined to the initial Path app) and they increased the number of friends to 150 and now 500. There was a period of time where you will get a notification if anyone visits your personal profile. This did not last too long. Many of these changes were result of user feedback.

From a UX point of view, the Path app itself is pretty minimalistic and easy to use. However, an issue that I realize was that they are only available on mobile. That might be one of the reasons why it is not the most popular application on the market. Below are screenshots of my personal Path page. As you can see, Path has the emojis as ‘like’ buttons waaaay before Facebook updated theirs. You can also see who has seen your posts and who has not. Moreover, Path allows you to post a variety of music, movies, and location.

Now acquired by Korea’s Kakao, they are determined to make their products more relevant abroad. Path could be a space for quality content from close friends, while Facebook could be a place to wish distant acquaintances a birthday wish. As a regular user checker of Path, I am excited to see where Path will be (or not be) in the near future.

• Digital Marketing
• Indonesia
• Path
• Social Networking