Path will now allow its users to share photos, videos, and more on its private social network, from a wide range of new API partners. Building on the success of its Nike+ partnership for sharing fitness data, Path is announcing 13 new apps that will hook into its network and get a “Share on Path” button.
For Path, the hope is to provide more ways for users to share content with others about what’s happening in their lives. And to give them the ability to more easily bring in content that they were creating anyway. With that in mind, new API partners include everything from social video network Viddy to multi-picture or collage editors like PicStitch, all the way to personal fitness app Strava. Other apps to join include WordPress, Bible, Papelook, Miil, Manga Camera and Otaku.
The company’s first API partner, of course, was Nike, which allows users to share their runs and general fitness levels for each day. That integration has been so popular that the company decided to allow more developers to take advantage of its API.
According to Matt Van Horn, VP of business development for Path, the company curated the list of partners to fit with its goal as a more personal or private social network. In the case of Nike, it found many users shared data on Path but not on other social networks, such as Facebook or Twitter. That’s because Path is generally more focused on bringing you closer to people you genuinely feel comfortable sharing with.
Some of the apps were chosen because people were sharing content from them into Path already. For apps like Over, PicMix and PicFrame, that generally meant saving a picture to their camera roll before uploading it again into Path. Or copying and sharing a verse from the Bible, for instance.
For others, there was no real graceful way to share certain types of content — like fitness logs. In that case, the Path team learned from talking to users that many were simply taking screenshots of their workout log and posting into the app. The startup will continue to allow other developers to apply, and will work with them to ensure a high-quality experience when sharing with their Path friends.
For Path, it follows a trend of adding types of content that match with things people were sharing anyway. For instance, it added the location content type after it noticed people were uploading photos of restaurants and other places they had been, sort of as a way of “checking in,” according to Van Horn.
And the company is trying to find ways to become a repository for all the best moments that they want to share. Last fall, it introduced a way to import data from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. It also improved its search functionality to allow you to more easily find those moments again.
Path has raised a total of $41 million from investors such as Redpoint, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Index Ventures, First Round Capital, Digital Garage, CrunchFund*, Jerry Murdock, Mark Pincus, Yuri Milner, Allen & Company, Greylock Partners, and a whole buttload of angels. But it’s in the process of raising more — up to $50 million more.
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* It’s really hard to keep track of all the CrunchFund companies, which is why I’m glad I have this laundry list of investors to remind me — and you — that CrunchFund put money into Path. But even though Michael Arrington founded CrunchFund and also founded TechCrunch, that has no basis on whether or not I want Path to succeed, or why I keep giving it $1.99 every week or so for more sticker packs.