The Billions $ User Generated Content
Posted on December 20, 2006
Filed Under Advertising/Marketing, European Web 2.0, European Web 2.0 pipeline |
Plenty of enterpreneurs have been complaining about the lack of adventure from VCs in supporting content related businesses so Post Le Web 3 I took a look around European web 2.0 commentary sites to see if there was a sensible point to make. One stop off was Coffee Shops of Mayfair, Paul Fishers VC blog.
What struck me immediately was this comment of Paul. “many web 2.0 companies will not be venture backed but that’s precisely because THEY ARE NOT APPROPRIATE FOR VC. Most do not have the potential to be billion dollar businesses.”
Scary to think that VCs want to see a billion dollar business on the back of seed and early stage capital as their deal maker/breaker. The YouTube effect will presumably reinforce the views of VCs courting that kind of deal, that it’s the main investment criterion.
On the other hand Paul draws attention to an interesting project that had passed me by and which could prove his point. Bloombox. Bloombox is a product that makes it easy for TV companies to build shows around user generated content. It’s parent is mintdigital which also runs islandoo - the place to apply to be on Channel 4’s Shipwrecked.
What’s interesting is the assumption that islandoo/bloombox can be used by brand leaders to develop social network sites “out of the box”. Tie them into a TV programme or two as well presumably and you start to see the kind of visitor numbers that make for a billion dollar user geerated asset. In contrast I suppose he’s right that most of us in Web 2.0 are looking to do something that has a little more meaning, tired as we are of brands and TV. But here too is a model for future advertising and a way for broadcasters to appeal for higher ad revenues.
I must wake up to the new reality though because I want mydietfriends to be a good UCG community and wripe to be a success. The VC in the Mayfair coffee house is clear that the technology rather than the content is where the money is, though, so I may need to go back to the drawing board. But then lookee here.
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