I am not a huge wrestling fan but I do watch wrestling from time to time and I was really into wrestling in 2012. During 2012 WWE partnered with tech startup Tout. Tout gave you the Vine or Instagram like experience using short video clips.

Tout gave you the experience of 15-second mobile video with a social media platform the same as others in the market give you today. Tout gained popularity in June 2011 when basketball player Shaquille O’Neal used the service to announce his retirement.

In 2012, WWE invested $5,000,000 in Tout and entered into a two-year partnership with the company. WWE announced the use of Tout as one of its social media platforms during the 1000th episode of Raw.  The night WWE announced the Tout app it was downloaded more than 30,000 times for iOS and Android during and after Monday Night Raw that night with more than 400,000 people visited the app through Tout and WWE.com.

WWE during the show would show fan made videos about RAW and show case backstage content going on during the show. WWE would use the platform to announce updates about Jerry Lawler when he had his heart attack in September of 2012 and Brock Lesnar used the service to announce his retirement in August 2012 as part of a storyline.

Tout was a great service but just never caught on with the WWE fans. Despite WWE constant effort to push the platform more and more users fell off using the service. On February 24, 2014, WWE launched their own app along with the WWE network. WWE promotion and effort went into promoting their own network and app. The WWE’s partnership with Tout expired in 2014 and they stopped using it afterward.

Tout is still in business used by Wall Street Journal, BBC, ESPN, and others for daily use.