In the 21st century, TV has not moved one step further in innovation. Let's be honest, there are many opportunities in improving the way you may experience ads, content and information. Social Media has risen upon most downloaded app on the Apple Store. In this newsletter, you will get all the gossip around the 2.1 trillion $ entertainment industry and how to shape the future.
Here’s a glimpse of the market 👀 & the reason to continue believing in innovation.
📊 Key trends
The entertainment industry grew 15% in 2019, marking the ninth year of sizable growth. But, as we all know, 2020 was a year like nothing the entertainment industry had ever seen. No more cinemas, no more traveling and a bunch of variants following a series of lockdown. What might the recovery look like? What’s changing and what’s more likely to stay the same?
Here are nice trends driving the future of the entertainment:
🌋 Problem: COVID-19
From 2019 to 2021 (and beyond 🌒 )
When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, back in March, all cinemas, theatres and concerts were among the sectors that were hit the hardest, having to navigate one of the worst crises in history. Several media corporations and startups went through difficult lay-offs in the weeks and months to follow - most notably Hollywood or even Gaumont in the french market. The industry as a whole quickly realised that this pandemic would have lasting effects and change the way we enjoy ourselves for the foreseeable future. Think mobile, think digital!
🚀 One Solution for One Problem
The good news is that there are signs of recovery as we near the end of 2020 and look ahead to 2021. On the startup front, Netflix’s beat of Quibi is sure to give entertainment industry partners a hope that new actors can change how we watch a movie at home or go to concerts, online.
The first rule of thumb for any social network is its community-driven data. Without a community behind, a product is nothing. So, Netflix among many (Disney, Amazon) need to include families, friends into their broadcasting channels. Look at TPMP in France how they include their community with open debates, fair & square. The most important of it all is interaction. Give your viewers a chance to discover a new thing every day, to keep them in the loop (with newsletters or WhatsApp messaging). Think education. Think content.
Top features we live at GONG:
Netflix’s “play something” feature allows users to shuffle through a random pick of movies and TV shows. Subscribers who click the new button are met with a film or show that was picked based on its algorithm.If it doesn’t look interesting, users can click “play something else” and get a new show or film, an unfinished show or film, a series or film on their watch list.
Netflix knows it has to feed on the audience’s primal instinct of curiosity. There’s a sense of aimless wandering when looking through the vast expanses of its offerings. Sometimes, it feels like YouTube, where users can quickly become lost in a sea of “Up Next.” Indeed, it appears quite the following stumbled upon “Explained,” the platform’s show done in partnership with Vox. Netflix took notice, granting a second season with weekly episodes. Through five, 22-minute episodes, the series has so far picked up where season one left off. It’s effortless to roam the show seemingly at random, with topics ranging from cults, billionaires and animal intelligence. Audiences get asked the ultimate question — what do you want to learn about today?
🙌 Top Actors (not Leonardo DiCaprio, I mean cool startups at the moment)
Tens of billions of dollars are flowing to entertainment startups from Venture Capital, CVC and other TV/movie stars. Let’s find out who, what, when, where and why. With GONG and this newsletter, we want to help all entrepreneurs who are looking to raise money gain a bit more understanding of whom the most active investors in the space currently are.
😎 Oculus TV is a way to see innovation come to life. Oculus TV is a VR home for the best in immersive entertainment where you’re always at the centre of the action. Basically, it's the Netflix (or the Disney+, Amazon, Hulu, ...), 360!
🎮 A French startup caught my eye when I need inspiration in the gaming industry. Voodoo (2013, 200M, Tencent) is clearly the best performance these months. It is a mobile game development studio that specializes in developing arcade and simulation games. Some games developed by the company are "Helix Jump", "Snake Vs Blocks", "Paper.io" for Android and iOS devices. Also provides marketing, monetization, and other game publishing services. It generates revenue through advertisements and in-app purchases.
💬 + 🎙 Social network based on voice: When Clubhouse was launched only for iOS users, Android + podcasters revolted. They need a way to keep podcasting but give a chance for everyone to be a narrator. Twitter came along with SPACES and beat them to market (Android + web). That took care of 60% of the market. In the gaming industry, Discord took a real advantage: visual. You could see the person who was talking. Think person. Think entertainment.
🍆 Sextech is a big sub-division of the entertainment tech industry. Recently, the press worldwide (& social media) got excited of women founders, then women's care, mental health, dating life, everything around the main one-upon-time taboo subject. Humour got over everything, and we liked talking openly about the sex life, once we got over the #stayathome situation. We'll write you a whole article next week about it, so sit on, enjoy your usual porno (or sex life) & we'll see you next week for a private session 🍑
📱 IGTV vs. Snap vs. TikTok: Social media platforms are such a huge part of our lives, it can be easy to forget that they haven’t always been at our fingertips. But the rise of the video-sharing app TikTok – which is starting to rival Instagram in popularity – is a reminder that the digital landscape is constantly evolving.
💻 Hopin vs. Runtheworld: See this side-by-side comparison of Hopin vs. Run The World based on preference data from user reviews. Hopin rates 4.7/5 stars with 224 reviews. Hopin is a virtual venue with multiple interactive areas that are optimised for connecting and engaging. Run The World helps you host virtual conferences, talks and happy hours.
🎧 The Spotify vs Apple fight just heated up with the former seeing a big win against the latter in the EU. The European Commission issued a big win to Spotify (via Ars Technica). It has decided to charge Apple with violating antitrust laws in the EU, alleging that “it distorted competition in the music streaming market as it abused its dominant position for the distribution of music streaming apps through its App Store.”
📹 Last year, executives at YouTube began mulling, once again, the problem of online speech. On grounds of freedom of expression and ideological neutrality, the platform has long allowed users to upload videos endorsing noxious ideas, from conspiracy theories to neo-Nazism. Now it wanted to reverse course.
GONG' selection
Startups are indeed leaders in the Entertainment industry. But, old-fashioned big TV Groups are trying their best to provide an impeccable service, even though a pandemic forces us to #stayathome.
We’ve listed out 6 media players below that are redefining the entertainment space and that, we think, are worthwhile to keep an eye on in 2021:
🏈 SportsAddict - Watching TV With Your Friends on a Virtual Couch with Big screen TV is finally possible. This latest update for the free Big screen Beta app is available on all VR platforms including Steam VR (HTC Live, Valve Index), Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus Rift, Oculus Go, Oculus Quest, and Samsung Gear VR.
📺 Entirely dependent on social networks, BrutX launched (vs. Loopsider) collaborate extensively with brands and media to ensure their income. Born in 2016 and 2018 respectively, Brut and Loopsider are part of these 100% video media that have made the bet to be based only on social networks. While these two companies have millions of viewers in France and around the world, how did they set up their economic model? During the Médias en Seine festival held on October 8, 2019, Roger Coste, co-founder of Brut and Giuseppe de Martino, president of Loopsider, detailed how their company makes money on Facebook or Snapchat. Little or no publicity
🎰 Black Mirror tested its first interactive film experience on Netflix that let viewers choose their storyline. In Bandersnatch, viewers make decisions for the main character, the young programmer Stefan Butler (Fionn Whitehead), who is adapting a fantasy game book into a video game in 1984. Other characters include: Mohan Shakur (Asim Chaudhry) and Colin Ritman (Will Poulter), who work at a video game company, Stefan's father Peter (Craig Parkinson), and Stefan's therapist, Dr. Haynes (Alice Lowe).
📝 British startup Contentyze develops natural language generation (NLG) solutions with applications in various industries. The startup’s AI Writer enables content automation by providing real-time word suggestions and entirely AI-generated original text pieces.
👩🏻💻 The US-based startup Wiser utilizes computer vision technology to measure the effectiveness of sponsorships for brands, media agencies, social media influencers, and sports teams.
🗂 Datasys is a US-based startup providing an effective and easy-to-use self-serve display advertising and email marketing platform. The Datasys360 platform saves advertisers countless man-hours and provides them with access to more than 280 million consumer profiles, simple campaign scheduling, and detailed reporting.
🎮 Pragma is a US-based startup specializing in the tools required to easily build and scale multiplayer online games. The startup’s platform enables game developers to access and build games that are easy-to-use, scalable, and fully studio-owned.
🍳 Straight from the Oven
In 2021, entertainment startups will not only play a large role in helping us adjust to the new normal and restore confidence in amusing ourselves, but also challenge the fundamental ways of how we’ve thought about going out, which presents an exciting prospect - especially for early-stage investors.
🍿 Audience Entertainment - Interactive Experiences for the Cinema
📚 Interlude - "New world of storytelling" - with interactive videos
🏡 Apple HomePod - The new home entertainment system by Apple
💬 Glance - A gram of entertainment for Reddit.
🏈 Playmaker - The meta entertainment layer of live sports
📸 Flickonic A spoiler-free space to suit your entertainment needs
🗞 Bloomberg Lens - Scan the news. Get more insight. Anywhere you are.
🥊 Genius Global - they organize online hackathon for students around the world (with Discord)
🥊 Contra 2.0 — Vote, Debate, Learn - A slick app for voicing your most honest opinions
💌 Paid newsletters by Revue - Build a newsletter that pays 💌💰
Email subscription as a community (Substack vs. Medium): These companies are targeting one of news organizations’ weak points: media. Here is how Facebook is handling its news channel.
🌋 Opportunities
We looked at our anonymized viewers data and found that remote still take a large chunk of booking volume #marketingtip
🎸 Concerts reopen in New Zealand: More than 50,000 fans packed into Eden Park stadium, New Zealand’s largest, on Saturday night for what is believed to be the largest live in-person concert since the pandemic began. Through a combination of swift lockdowns and border closures, New Zealand has all but eliminated the coronavirus, with 2,600 cases and 26 deaths reported since the start of the pandemic, according to a New York Times database (Thanks Brut for giving me a real hope to get free in the wild again)
🎒 Pack your bags honey, we are going to be nomad. Remote working allowed: The pandemic triggered a 50% surge in digital nomads in the US in 2020, offering a potential new source of technology talent. The rise of remote work opportunities and social media influencers in the travel sector has grown widespread interest in the digital nomad lifestyle. Digital nomads, or those who travel while working remotely, make up tens of millions of the world population (and that digital nomad statistic is only increasing). Here are 25+ Digital Nomad Statistics and Trends in 2021
🎤 Starting a podcast is much cheaper that it seams: Whether you’ve only just heard of podcasts or you’re one of the 6% of U.S. adults who class themselves as an avid listener, podcasts are worth learning more about. Podcast content marketing can be a powerful way to build an audience for your business and there are a growing number of ways to monetize a podcast effectively. Is it Worth Starting a Podcast in 2021?
📱 The rise of Social Media: According to a study by the founder of backlinko, a very popular online marketing blog, Brian Dean, 3.96 billion people currently use social media worldwide. The population in the whole world is up to 7.8 billion people as of 2021, so by calculation, 50.77% of people are using a social media site currently. This just goes to show that of every two people you see in the world, at least one of them will own a social media account of some sort.
🏋️♀️ A century after the invention of the weekend, more companies are adding another day. Check out the Berlin-based tech company Awin: “We firmly believe that happy, engaged, and well-balanced employees produce much better work,” says Chief Executive Officer Adam Ross. They “find ways to work smarter, and they’re just as productive.”
👨🏻💻 Product Hunt: The overnight success is a myth that has been thoroughly debunked over recent years, especially as it applies to tech. Knowing this, it’s still hard not to think of Product Hunt as an overnight success given how rapidly it spread throughout Silicon Valley. Practically, all major product launches are now posted to Product Hunt. In fact, the product’s makers are almost always present as well, commenting in real-time with everyone else. From the outside, Product Hunt’s rise felt like magic.
🍪 No more cookies 🍪
🔮 Predictions
Last week, we talked how the travelling industry is coming back together to fight against loneliness and constant stress in our lives. We’re convinced that those entertainment startups that survived 2020/2021 by executing well through the toughest environment they will ever have to face, are very well positioned to excel and take off by the second half of 2021 as billions around the world start going out again with the same enthusiasm and frenzy as they showed when buying toilet paper in early 2019 🧻.
✈️ People will be travelling, once we will be vaccinated and country borders open again. This is a moment where entertainment is going to boom again, we hope. Hollywood is going to be back, concerts reopen (test or no test), no more 😷 in public spaces... life. A little innovation here and there (not much to talk about here yet) but we'll focus our analysis on the recent IPO, 🦄 unicorn successes.
🎮 Gamification of the workplace has been an area of serious consideration for the last decade. As technology has evolved, the potential of applying game design, technology and techniques to non-game environments, including business settings, has grown. Not just as a means of incentivizing teams, but of simplifying and streamlining processes, aiding workers and enhancing productivity.
🎮 Do you remember how relationship was movied in Her. Samantha, the artificially intelligent operating system, wasn't the only impressive tech in Spike Jonze's Her. Joaquin Phoenix's character plays a futuristic video game in the film that is now, in a way, coming to life. The animator and designer of the fictional game, David OReilly, announced the release of his indie game — Mountain. With the GONG team, we came across this old article talking about how, the animator behind the fictional video game in 'Her' is planning a Real-Life Release. I am 🤯.
Here is the scene:
💬 Facebook is creating new products that brushes privacy matters (they are fighting the US government as we speak) but they also innovate in fields that no one bear to go: Social Network in VR/AR. We wrote a whole article on this subject. We think it is going to be big! (+70% in the last 5 months)
🤩 GO or NOGO?
GO, GO, GO!
TV needs a change. You’re the main actor. Discover your an open-source TV channel for all entrepreneurs
🏃🏻♂️ Your extra mile - for the curious ones
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