New social media outlet Balloonduck to launch at UNC

Although far from Silicon Valley, UNC might soon be the birthplace of the newest social media craze.

Former UNC student Vivian Xue and Brandon Thornton, both California natives, have founded a social media outlet called Balloonduck, a website they call “Twitter for questions.”

“If you had a room of a million people, how would you most efficiently communicate with all of them?” Xue said.

The site is set to launch among UNC students in April.

With Thornton behind the coding of the website and Xue at the design helm, the two have worked on the project for about six months. Xue withdrew from UNC to work on it full-time.

Balloonduck provides an interface for users to engage in dialogues with others on the site by writing questions called “requests,” Xue said.

Requests are intended to be opinion-based rather than factual. Users can add photos, links, hashtags or @mentions to make requests dynamic.

“There are a lot of people out there with interesting experiences and opinions but no good outlet currently for their knowledge,” Xue said.

She compared it to a cross between Yahoo! Answers and Twitter, with a more organized concept so that requests aren’t lost in a news feed format.

The project has attracted the interest and support of major investors, Xue said, but she declined to name any particular groups or amount of funding until the site has launched.

Currently in a testing stage, Xue and Thornton are tweaking last-minute details and waiting to see a greater demand from users before making it active.

The founders also hope to develop an iPhone app once the website gains momentum.

Hayley Fahey, a UNC student and friend of Xue and Thornton’s who has been close to the project from its start, said students will see a value in Balloonduck.

“It can change how students interact online with each other and give them new ways of getting information,” Fahey said.

But sophomore Christina Sartori expressed concern with the format.

“I can see why someone would use a site like this, but I’m not sure I would rely on asking the opinions of strangers,” Sartori said. “I would probably turn to my friends for advice before that.”

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