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1. Bambuser



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According to its homepage, Bambuser lets you “share live moments from your phone or webcam” – but forget about the holiday pictures Bambuster uses to advertise itself. As we reported, Bambuser has actually become a tool for citizen journalism, and Egyptian activists have been using the service to broadcast Tahrir Square protests in real time from their mobile phones.

This goes well beyond Egypt; Bambuser now has about 1 million users worldwide, from 190 countries. Its founders are also well aware of its potential when it comes to real-time news, something they envisioned from the very beginning. Still, giving a voice to protesters doesn’t come without trouble, and the service has suffered temporary shutdowns in the Middle East.

Yet, Bambuser has also become a reliable source for traditional media outlets, as its co-founder Jonas Vig told our Middle East Editor Nancy Messieh last month in reference to Egypt:

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“On the 25th of January, when Twitter was flooded with all the tweets. One of the partners we have with public broadcasters in Sweden, they couldn’t validate the news. So they turned to Bambuser, and since this is real-time, could validate that there were thousands of people in the Square. They used a Bambuser video in their traditional broadcasting as well.”

It’s a future Bambuser fully embraces; “What we want to do is to work with as many media outlets as possible,” Vig added.

➤  Bambuser, via multiple platforms