GZV #14: Live Streaming, Social Commerce, and Some Tips for Spotify.
Startups. Trends. Markets. All from a Gen Z view.
Reading time: ~ around a small cup of coffee (~9 min)
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Themes of the week
Live streaming 📺
Finding friends online 🕺🏃♂️🕴🏻
Social Commerce 🛍️ 🖥️
Spotify 🎵
Startups 👀 👀 👀
Scale: Gen Z won’t/may/will like <Company Name>.
Gen Z will like Restream.
*Recently just raised a $50 million Series A. Yes, you read that right. $50,000,000.*
Who are they?
Restream is a multi-streaming solution that allows producers to analyze and interact with their viewers across platforms (Twitch, Instagram, Facebook, Youtube).
Note: Gen Z will not be customers of Restream, but they will be customer’s of Restream’s customers. Example: Some video game streamer with a large gen z audience signs with Restream. Gen Z will consume that streamers content through Restream.
Why the rating (Pros)?
Ever since the beginning of Covid, live streams have become a new medium. Barstool President, Dave Portnoy, was getting over 50k unique views a night on his unboxing streams.
Live streams do well because they provide raw content. There is no post edit production and this allows an audience to feel closer with the streamer.
Gen Z loves watching their favorite influencers play video games, participate in challenges, and just talk in general.
Check out: https://www.barstoolsports.com/shows/120/stool-streams
Potential Cons?
You can’t watch live streams like Netflix, they occur at a certain time, and watching them back isn’t as fun.
Streamers may just like streaming on one platform such as twitch or youtube.
💡 Investment Idea 💡: Live streaming is relatively new to social media, so the question becomes what’s next within streaming? Watch for startups trying to go into this field and gain on the new streaming trend. Maybe an e-commerce plug in, or a local chat feature. If you come across these investment opportunities feel free to contact me for insights.
Gen Z will not like Wink.
Who are they?
Wink is a social network that allows people from all over the world to make new friends! Wink is the best place to make new friends because it's fun, easy, and safe!
Why the rating? (Cons because Gen Z won’t like this)
Wink has been described as a snapchat friend finder and a way to meet new people. They have been advertising with creators on tiktok and have 463m views on the #wink hashtag.
Gen Z uses Snapchat to talk to their current friends they have meet through school, other friends, or a dating app friends. Gen Z kids aren't really interested in becoming friends with people they don’t know.
The game feature isn’t that attractive either, the main way Gen Z connects with strangers online is through video games or dating apps, not mobile games.
Potential Pros?
This analysis is from a college gen z view, there is a chance that the high schoolers or middle schoolers enjoy this.
Tiktok has 33% of their audience under 14, there is a chance this is a core part of wink’s audience.
💡 Investment Idea 💡: Well, first off advertise with Tiktok creators. Almost all of my friends said they wouldn’t use this app, yet it is #26th in the App Store for social networking. Any brand that advertises with popular Tiktok influencers will gain plenty of views. In terms of social apps, the scene is crowded right now. Watch for niche products or innovative new ways to share content.
Gen Z Trend of the Week - Social Commerce
What’s social commerce?
In my own words, social commerce is the idea of merging e-commerce and social media. This will allow consumers to have a seamless, yet social shopping experience online.
Haven’t platforms like Instagram already integrated this?
Yes, actually. Instagram has an entire shop feature pictured below. They just haven’t figured out how to attract the proper audience yet.
What can they do to improve the product?
Well, first they can make the experience more comfortable for users. Right now, it almost feels kind of sketchy to buy products through instagram. A great idea would be to look at WeChat. If you’re going to have shopping on a social platform, make it social. We want to see what our friends are buying and where they are buying it. We are way more likely to buy a product on Instagram if we see 4 of our friends have.
How big can the social commerce sector become?
It depends on who gets it right first. No company has really gained a massive market share yet. For the most part, Gen Z still does most of our e-commerce on the websites of the brands we are shopping from. Once the first company or startup successfully captures the market it has the possibility to really take off.
Where’s the 💡 Investment 💡?
Any company that is trying to enter into the social commerce scene has a shot in my opinion, so be on the lookout. Although instagram definitely has the best shot, they haven’t figured out how to make it comfortable yet. Any startup that tries to do something new in the sector has a chance to become a 9-figure company. One company I know that is trying to do something new in this space is Huddle.
3 Small Ways Spotify Can Improve Their Product Dramatically
I love my music. I would be lost without it. I currently have headphones in listening to some Mumford and Sons while punching my keyboard. This morning I listened to Dave Matthews Band during my run. On my way to class today, I listened The Killers new album. Point is, I don’t know what I would do without music.
And I think a good portion of Gen Z feels the same way. We love our music.
For the most part Gen Z is mostly on Spotify or Apple Music. I would say the split is 70% Spotify, 30% Apple Music (based on a survey of 25 gen z’ers). With 70% of Gen Z on their platform you wouldn't think there is much else they could do to improve, but Spotify was only on the first wave of innovation. Robinhood made the stock market zero commission, Netflix made tv streaming a reality, and Spotify made music streaming a reality. These were all huge waves of innovation, but now they are behind us and companies like Spotify need to keep innovating.
Here are three way’s I believe Spotify can innovate and improve their product.
Social. As much as music is personal for my generation, it is also very social. Spotify should incorporate a few social features with their product. First, is a direct message feature. When a new song comes out from a popular artist, we want to share it with our friends. Having a direct message feature on Spotify will make sharing seamless and provide a platform for friend groups to talk about music. Second, it should be easy to find your friend’s profiles. My cousin has a really good oldies playlist, but every time I want to play it I have to search his entire name. I want to be able to see who I follow and find their profile quickly.
Hardware. Almost every gen Z kid has a small personal speaker, and Spotify should try to take some of this market. The speaker shouldn’t be expensive, my current one is $30 and sounds awesome, but I believe a $50 price point is reasonable. Whether it be a sleek design, better sound, or a pre-sync feature I think Spotify has the team to make a speaker that can beat the current market with an additional feature or two.
Spotify Venues, Tickets, and live streams. Ever been looking at your favorite band on Spotify and see that they are performing a concert near you soon? I think Spotify should capitalize on this feature and do a few things. First, start to buy the naming rights on a few venues and second, start a ticket selling platform within their app. If I can listen to music through Spotify, why shouldn’t I be able to buy tickets to a concert too? It can drive a new revenue stream for the company and allow for Spotify to become the go to for all things music. Lastly, at least while Covid is around, Spotify should introduce a live streaming feature for artists to perform on, this way they can get direct all their music toward one platform.
Just a few ideas from how I’ve seen their product. I’m going to listen to some Quinn XCII now.
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Special thanks to my editor, Cristina Lombardozzi (my mom, like she hasn't done enough for me).
Feel free to email or text with any questions or comments about the newsletter, Gen Z, or startups.
thomas@genzvoice.com
203-628-6006