Mediaboss Marketing

Thirty years ago, social media (as we think of it today) didn't exist. Now, it is a dominant and inescapable part of the culture, a tool used by people of all ages from all over the world. A tool used to connect with family and friends, to find community, to find love. Or maybe just to find a strange little eight-second video created by someone you've never met who lives thousands of miles away that manages to make you laugh until your stomach hurts.

The rise of social media has, of course, created companies that are hugely valuable and powerful, like Facebook and Twitter and Tencent. These fresh-faced industry giants made their early backers hugely wealthy. And this week, it was as clear as ever that investors are still eagerly searching for the next social media colossus.

A cohort of companies putting their own unique twist on social media has been making headlines, which is one of 10 things you need to know from the past week:

Yet the company's user base continues to grow, and its role in the GameStop saga seems to have alerted investors to the potential for community organizing and community action that exists in Reddit's wide array of user-moderated forums. The company announced $250 million in new funding on Monday at a $6 billion valuation, doubling the figure it attained just two years ago, according to PitchBook data.

Reddit's approach to social media is often anonymous and text-based. It is a very different story at Bumble, the operator of a popular dating app that requires women to make the first move. But Bumble also had a banner week: The company raised nearly $2.2 billion in its IPO, then saw its shares climb more than 60% on their first day of trading, taking the company's market cap above $13 billion.

Bumble is different from most social media companies in that the ultimate goal for users is to stop using the platform entirelyif an app is an effective matchmaker, it won't have a lot of repeat customers. Bumble is also unusual among its peers in that it was majority-owned by a private equity firm, Blackstone, rather than being backed by venture capitalists. But in the early going, at least, it's a recipe Wall Street is eating up.

By far the buzziest social media startup in Silicon Valley lately has been Clubhouse, which is emerging as an online version of the traditional European salon. Investors, founders, influencers and other invitees use the platform to convene audio-only chat rooms on a wide array of topics. But a lack of moderation of those topics has already sparked its fair share of controversy. Late last month, the company raised new funding at a reported $1 billion valuation.

Clubhouse has become so buzzy that existing social media giants are taking note. Reports emerged this week that Facebook is planning to launch a similar audio chat product. And Twitter is reportedly expanding tests of its Twitter Spaces feature, another audio chat product designed to compete with Clubhouse.

The idea of voice-based social networking isn't new. Ham radio has been around for more than 100 years. Discord and Twitch have their similarities. But there seems to be a growing consensus among the tech elite that it's an area poised for serious growth in the years to come.

Reddit and Bumble are all about connecting with other everyday people. Clubhouse is a bit more focused on fame. Famous people are the entire business model at Cameo, another kind of social media service, where users can find a menu of thousands of celebrities who are willing to record a personalized video in exchange for a fee. Some people use it to send a birthday greeting from a favorite reality star. Others use it to break up with their spouses.

When it first brought in seed funding in 2018, Cameo seemed like a curiosity. Now investors are valuing the company at $1 billion, Bloomberg reported, more than tripling its 2019 valuation. With its reliance on star power, Cameo represents an interesting intersection of social media and the influencer economy.

Did somebody say influencer? That brings us to TikTok, the last stop on our tour of the week in social media. The Wall Street Journal reported that the US government has indicated in court that it would not force through TikTok's sale of its US operations to Oracle and Walmart, a convoluted transaction that had been arranged last year at the behest of the Trump administration.

There was always a sense that TikTok's best bet to avoid the divestiture was simply to wait it out, and that patience has been rewarded. The Biden administration is reportedly conducting a broader review of US policy toward China in trade, tech and other areas, and it's unclear what the regime change will mean for the relationship between the two superpowers. But in this case, a different leader in the White House made all the difference.

Reddit, Bumble, Clubhouse, Cameo and TikTok all take different approaches to using technology to bring people closer together. And in these social media-fueled times, there might be room enough for all of them to flourish.

Originally posted here:
10 big things: Social media's next generation - PitchBook News & Analysis