Oceans launch their diving social network, following in the footsteps of Fishbrain and The Great Wild
It seems Johan Attby was right. The rise of the “niche social network” is upon us. Fishbrain, one of the most talked about startups in 2014, are now closing in on 1,000,000 registered users to their social network and community for fishing, whilst we recently profiled The Great Wild, another Swedish app trying to do the same for hunting.
Today marks the launch and first public release of dive logging and community app Oceans, following a successful invitation-only beta trial during 2014. Together with the world’s diving community, Oceans is set to map the teeming oceanic life, vivid landscapes and fragile underwater environment — making it available for everyone to explore.
“Oceans is all about co-creation. We are building a community for divers and explorers worldwide, allowing them to share and discover dive sites and observations across the world’s oceans.” says Jimmy Reuterwall, Co-founder of Oceans.
Built with the user in focus, Oceans makes it easier than ever to check-in diving adventures and interact with divers worldwide. Smart tagging intelligently knows which observations are common at the current location and offline mode allows for check-in even where mobile networks are off limit.
Jimmy: “A common problem with existing apps for divers is lack in ease of use and product design. We have worked hard to perfect a tool that turns dive logging smart, simple and fast, with an interface that makes Oceans stand out from other diving applications.”
Normally I am skeptical to these kind of “X for Y” applications, but in the case of Oceans, it kind of makes sense. Like Fishbrain, logging and mapping is a core focus, perhaps even more so for diving. For me, this is less about community, more about utility, and Oceans seems to be able to deliver a lot of value to a single user, before they engage in any of the community or social aspects.
The app is free on both the App Store and Google Play.
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