You might have come across this "GIF" printing photo booth if you have attended corporate events or weddings. The chances are that you just used Ubersnap's services. Ubersnap is probably the first company in the world to come up with the idea of printing GIFs. Today, they are probably the largest company in Singapore, serving this specific niche. No one else comes close to the hardware and software stack that they have innovated over YEARS.
And here is the thing: Boon Chin stuck it out. Boon Chin is a dear friend of mine, and I cannot recall how many times I tried convincing him to "move on" from Ubersnap.
The early years
Boon Chin is an avid photographer when he isn't busy trying to satiate his senses with coffee or cigarettes.
What if pictures move?
I said that's a video, duh. But I guess he was referring the specific moment that a picture is being taken. A looping video of the very moment a picture is taken. That's a gif.
We were mates in this exchange programme in our university known as the "NOC." It's quite popular; I recommend you Google it if you haven't. The same programme gave birth to 99.co, Carousell, my company and of course Ubersnap.
We were entrepreneurial oriented, and Boon Chin decided to work on this app for GIFs. An Instagram for GIFs. He hired programmers and burnt his first tranche of money worth 50,000 Singapore Dollars.
There is already Instagram; why will people use Ubersnap?
That's what I said. I was wrong on two counts.
I assumed nobody cares for GIFs, just images. Instagram released Boomerang later, effectively putting the nail in the coffin for Ubersnap's dreams to be a significant social media app.
Tons of people have gone on later to use Ubersnap.
Out of money
Boon Chin was out of money, now what? First, we start with an inaugural drinks session for which I will be the ultimate dampener and suggest that he move on. For which Boon Chin will go on to ignore. It is not that he does not want to give up. But he believed in GIFs. Jesus, that commitment. He always has the next idea to bring about the next GIFnomenon.