Traditional values –or– Valuing traditions
I was talking with a financial guy this week about our project and the question of valuation. When we first considered this question, we tried benchmarking with similar—or at least, comparable—companies. But since that time, just half a year ago, the entire landscape has changed dramatically.
All the activity in the Web 2.0 sector is really exciting now. Of course, if you’re reading this post, you may have also been following the NEWS section of the Respectance blog and you know what’s happening.
Web 2.0 has been the focus of intense interest by the market. The purchase of YouTube by Google for 1.65 billion earlier this month shows that this sector has really come of age. Now, it will be a land grab to claim the actual social events & marketing moments where Web 2.0 applies, instead of just the technology.
What’s really interesting about the Respectance proposition is that it begins with an unmatched list of already-proven features:
1. instant creation of personalized webspace (e.g. MySpace)
2. photo uploading and sharing (e.g. flickr)
3. video uploading and sharing (e.g. YouTube)
4. paid media downloads (e.g. iTunes)
5. social reconnecting & networking (e.g. Classmates.com / Linkedin)
Respectance essentially combines all of these—some of the hottest interactive features of the web at this moment. But unlike flickr, youtube, myspace, etc., which have no central theme or particular target group, Respectance has a finely tuned marketing proposition (i.e. combining social media with multimedia at a specific, emotionally-charged, eternally-repeating marketing moment: the death of a loved one). Moreover, we have created a business model that offers credible revenue generation and real growth potential.
What’s happening in the media space itself is also very intriguing. I made this post
Good Bye Martin in the blog a couple of weeks ago. It’s about youtubers using video to share messages directly with each other. This enables people to literally have their say; it’s especially poignant, impactful and applicable to moments of great emotional depth. In other words, this is a perfect medium for people recounting their favorite memories, and recording their final goodbyes and eulogies.
Richard has referred to Respectance as creating new traditions. I think he’s mostly right: sharing heart-felt emotion is an old tradition; we’re just updating it with the way people interact today.
31 Oct
