GZV #48: Buzzer and the Audio Winner
Good morning. Today I was very excited to talk about my pick in the audio space as well as a new sports related app. Share if you like the content!
Anyways. Follow me on Twitter
Let’s look at Buzzer…
Problem:
As we all know Sports are huge. Yet, for fans there is no prominent place to follow along with your favorite teams and athletes.
Solution:
“Buzzer simplifies the discovery and access to live short-form “lightning-in-a-bottle” moments in sports tailored to your preferences with real-time notifications and micro-transactions.”
Gen Z View:
Obviously, only a % of Gen Z loves sports enough to want an app to follow along, but the TAM is still pretty damn high.
On top of Gen Z’ers who just love to watch, a lot love to bet, and that gives all the more reason for a central location to watch their favorite team win.
Sports are a part of some kids identity, if they were gone kids would be lost, Covid last year showed this. Now more than ever, Gen Z’ers love their teams and athletes, they will try to stay close to them for years to come.
Extra Note:
Right now there app still looks like it is in beta, so I wasn’t able to do a deep dive. With that said, it was intriguing enough for me to share. I am excited for it to become available to the public.
Question I would ask as a potential investor…
What are micro transactions and how do they play into the app?
Micro transactions are really really exciting. Imagine having to pay only $0.25 every time you watch a live sports game on your phone instead of a subscription. I don't know if this is the exact way Buzzer is using micro-transactions, but the space is super exciting in my opinion.
Fundraising?
Unaware, but here is a link to the contact page on their website. https://buzzer.com/contact-us/
The Race for Audio is on Thanks to Spotify’s New Greenroom.
*List of audio social media platforms active a year ago: 1*
*List of audio social media platforms active today: 4*
In the past year, no one has tried to buy Clubhouse, they have simply just copied it and put their own unique twist on the space. Twitter has Twitter Spaces, Spotify has built Greenroom, and Facebook has built a competitor as well (to no ones surprise).
It’s hard to tell who is going to win this race, but personally I am putting my money on Twitter. I’ll dive into the other platforms for a second each and explain why they simply aren’t my horse.
Spotify:
As one of the new kids Spotify made a name for themselves by spinning off an entire separate app from the main one. While I like this idea, the app mimics too much of Clubhouse’s messiness. As soon as I got on the app I was confused and didn’t have much direction as to where to go. The discovery mode seems non-existent and the UI/UX just did not seem ready. I will give them some leeway as the app is pretty new and I’m guessing it will be dramatically improved by the end of summer.
Clubhouse:
As I referred to earlier, Clubhouse has just become boring and a little messy in my opinion. There are some rooms on my home screen that simply don’t reflect my interests, and there are even some that are just trying to sell you a course or a product. The notifications are also very inefficient and it has lost its buzz from the quarantine days. As they were the pioneer I do not think they will fail, but I don’t think they will exactly be the winner unless they have a very good pivot.
Facebook:
Mark Zuckerberg hopped on clubhouse for a day and then 5 days later Facebook started building an audio feature. Not much else too this. They won’t win.
Twitter:
An audio social media app cannot stand alone. People can lurk on social networks for 5 minutes, but joining an audio room is much more of a commitment. For one to make this commitment they have to like the speakers, the topics, the guests, or know that they can have a say on stage. Twitter serves an extra audio feature perfectly because the spaces that you see are from people you know in your community.
In my community I follow a bunch of people who regularly interact with each other. This makes me feel involved and wanting to participate in events. I believe that people love to interact with others inside their community and are more willing to attend an event because of this.
Twitter serves as a place where you can build a community, adding an audio feature just solidifies and brings this community closer together. Spotify, Clubhouse, and Facebook don’t allow you to build a community as well as twitter does and that is why I believe twitter will win this race.
Cheers to that.
-Tom