Many startups make bold arguments when pitching their companies or products. We are the “Uber of cleaning”, “Netflix of education” or “we are disrupting the $100b industry x”. It’s good to have ambitious goals but many times obstacles are high, old habits die hard, market entry is too expensive or network effects too difficult (expensive) to reach.
We are building solutions for content monetization and micropayments. Optimally, these would create astonishing business opportunities around streaming video and other content related industries. Currently we are working to publish a web component library for video and audio monetization, with easy ways to integrate payment streams for any website or platform.
If we look at the money flows and numbers, there is room for disruption, but we want to take a more conservative approach. Providing new kinds of tools for content publishers and attracting more people to try micropayment models will eventually make a change, but it will be more iterative than disruptive. So we won’t be next Netflix, but disintermediation, decentralization and P2P are trends no one should underestimate.
The Streaming Industry
MediaKix reports that “the streaming industry is estimated to reach $124.6 billion by 2025,” while Grand View Research reports that “the global video streaming market size is expected to reach USD 184.27 billion by 2027”. Interesting fact behind the statistics is that “the live video segment is expected to portray the maximum and fastest growth over the forecast period.”
For video content the subscription-based business model is ruling the industry, which is used by most of the prime players from Netflix to Prime Video. Another is an ad-based business model used by most of the live streaming services.
Then of course, we have p*rn! It’s difficult to find numbers around adult content streaming but if we take a broader look, it is a global, estimated $97 billion industry and the largest site alone received over 42,000,000,000 site visits during 2019 alone. Adult entertainment is attracting a huge number of crowds but business models are surprisingly simple.
Product market fit
One good feature with subscription services is the fact that you don’t have to worry how much content you use. This is great especially for heavy users. From a content monetization point of view, we see the streaming video on demand market very difficult. But around it would be a number of interesting fields to utilize micropayments.
Live streaming around various platforms. For smaller broadcasters it is difficult to find a business model; ads aren’t generating true revenue and tickets sales aren’t possible for most of the time
Niche content producers. Domains specific video channels may distribute high value added material but again are difficult to monetize.
Content platforms collecting interesting media around certain topics. Too small to adopt monthly fees and too small to generate serious ad traffic
Smaller live events: school sports games, church choir, charity events.
Online keynotes, presentations and lectures
Influencer channels, people of interest
And of course, when talking about video streaming, circle close to adult entertainment. For individual / amateur publishing there are no good incentives or business models. Micropayments would enable sufficient revenue even from one viral hit. This would encourage smaller content producers and platforms to utilize monetization models. Site traffic is guaranteed. ;D
Bumps on the road
There are still a number of things hindering the progress; lack of wallets available, the restriction that you must use cryptocurrencies, user experience complexity, lack of publishing tools and of course, all new ways of doing things take a bunch of pioneers and a lot of time.
We are trying to solve some of these issues and provide easier means for publishing monetized media. We would like to hear if you’re working on the wallet side or enabling a broader selection of cryptos for sending and receiving payments.
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