When a player uploads a video from one of those top games to Plays.

When a player uploads a video from one of those top games to Plays.tv, the service automatically adds information about who played in the game -- you, your teammates, your opponents -- and publishes it along with the video. It's almost like getting tagged in a photo on Facebook. If you're an avid gamer, your friends and rivals may have already uploaded videos of your awesome wins or losses.

"The cool thing is you can get really granular," Fong said, adding that for a game like Activision's military shooter Call of Duty, there can be tags for "headshot" and "double-kill with a grenade." Users can even create a play-by-play highlight reel.

"We're the only platform in the world that can actually read what you do in the game," he said. And Plays.tv is starting to offer tools to help more game makers feed that data into player's videos.

Whether Plays.tv will keep growing with an Instagram-like trajectory isn't clear. Other social networks built around gaming, including attempts by the industry's biggest companies, like Activision's Call of Duty: Elite, haven't lived up to expectations.

Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said part of that is because not all gamers want to share details about the games they play. And do you really want to watch your friends complete a level on Candy Crush, anyway? "I barely want anyone to know what games I'm playing," said Pachter, "and I certainly don't want to brag about my accomplishments."


But, he said, e-sports is a growing business. And if Plays.tv can grab players' attention in a big way, it could succeed.

Fong certainly thinks he's got a winning strategy, particularly by focusing on tagging and data.

"Let's just say I kill you in a game and I think it's funny and I upload a clip -- you would get notified that I did that," he said. As a result, highlights of your games can show up in hundreds of people's videos without you even doing anything. "It can be pretty addicting."