Panel, Conference Presentation
2015 CA Summit - Honing California’s Edge in Technology and Entertainment
- California's technology and entertainment sectors are expected to grow, driven by the Latino demographic which is projected to lead population growth and consume approximately two hours more digital content monthly on mobile devices than non-Hispanics.
- Me Too intends to produce majority-English content for U.S. audiences while targeting Spanish and Portuguese markets with localized content, capitalizing on the expectation that 90% of U.S. Hispanics consume media in English and that big media companies will not immediately reinvent models for this demographic.
- Flippagram aims to become the "next social network" by facilitating story-telling with photos, videos, and music, with goals to reach hundreds of millions of monthly active users and eventually a billion mobile media creators, anticipating organic growth and monetization opportunities through brands.
- The company anticipates that Flippagram will differentiate itself between Instagram and YouTube by making video creation orders of magnitude easier via built-in music rights and social loops, disrupting the current YouTube model.
- Mobile usage is predicted to continue a steep upward trajectory, "eating" TV time and other activities, though a plateau is expected eventually due to biological needs for sleep, with usage expected to pervade services like healthcare and retail.
- Social media platforms are expected to cannibalize one another, with specific declines in older networks like Twitter as users shift to Snapchat and Flippagram, while younger audiences are predicted to switch platforms frequently as they age.
- The creator economy is projected to evolve as users transition from consumption to creation, with a small percentage of creators expected to reach "superstar" status comparable to PewDiePie, supported by algorithms connecting 15 million videos monthly.
- Northern California remains the primary hub for engineering talent, while Los Angeles faces challenges in attracting talent but is expected to improve through the influx of major tech campuses from Google, Facebook, and Yahoo, alongside the growth of the local ecosystem.
- Los Angeles is expected to leverage its lifestyle benefits and population growth to attract talent, with companies needing to demonstrate strong leadership, funding, and scale to compete, though a critical mass of talent, particularly C-level executives, remains a challenge.
- Virtual reality is anticipated to be a significant future trend with massive investment from infrastructure providers and strategists like Disney, with Southern California positioned to capitalize on the convergence of content and technology.
- Kids and family content is identified as a major trend exploding on mobile tablets, accounting for 60% of consumption, prompting major media companies to focus on mobile distribution and on-demand viewing.
- Future revenue streams for rights holders are expected to emerge from short-form content, while full-length features will be removed from certain platforms to protect other business lines, with video monetization migrating from television once advertising formats are standardized.
- Maker Studio plans to scale its technology to service digital creators in over a hundred countries, reducing onboarding times from weeks to hours and continuing to compete for engineering talent by leveraging cultural integration and "fast partnership flow."
- The distribution landscape is shifting toward a "center of gravity" platform for creators, with other channels serving as ancillary outlets, emphasizing that retaining audience attention is critical for business success.
- OTT streaming growth is projected to be strongest in the Asia-Pacific region, followed by Brazil and Mexico, driven by underserved audiences, while VR content is expected to offer a "new experience" despite debate over the exact timing of the boom.
- Diversity in leadership is considered vital for content relevance, with a current workforce estimated at a 60-40 male-to-female split, though the company maintains a diverse executive suite to better serve specific demographics.
- Risks include the difficulty of retaining user attention as platforms cannibalize each other, the need for companies to avoid mistakes made by predecessors like MySpace, and the challenge of filling critical executive roles in a region still developing a critical mass of tech talent.
- Monetization strategies will likely focus on building scale before direct revenue generation, with the expectation that video advertising dollars will migrate to other platforms once standardization is achieved.