New Wave: The Next Billion Dollar Startup Is In Mobile-Social-Video (Part 2)
(Continuing from Part 1)
A couple of businesses that will find significant scale over the next few years.
- Taboola/Outbrain for bite-sized Video Content: We've all seen a Taboola or Outbrain content feed - it's pervasive on the internet. If you didn't click the link - think back to "Suggested Links" on news sites, and next time you see that, notice that the service is usually powered by one of the two. The next generation video feed would be available on practically any news/entertainment app or feed you use on your phone - delivered from a curated set of bite-sized videos from all over the internet. The big problem with any content (especially video) is discoverability, and this business model solves for that. What's the billion dollar startup? The platform that curates and delivers this feed (as opposed to content owners, or publishers).
- A Social, Verticalized, Spotify - Let me take one vertical to exemplify: Music. Users have been (inconveniently) using a mix of Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat to follow their favorite (musical) artists. This simply doesn't have to be the case. Let me give you a personal example: I follow Dave Mustaine - I read tweets (on Twitter), discover videos on YouTube, buy the music off Amazon/Spotify, watch interviews on YouTube, and find out about concerts on various sites. If artists put their music videos, interviews, music albums and concert tickets/merchandise for sale, and social interactions in the same place, I'd love it, and would pay for it. Add to that, let's say I get to share my favorite music/content with friends (for a limited time, even if they don't pay for it). My favourite music, artists, their social feeds and videos -- all baked into a single experience. The same concept applies to Sports, TV, movies etc. What's the billion dollar startup? A cool platform that can be licensed to any sphere of entertainment.
These are just two among many huge video-centric business - more in part 3 of the series.
