LeWeb: Manifestation Of Connectiveness
It's almost been a week now since LeWeb was wrapped up by Geraldine and Loic Le Meur, but the Twitter feed for hashtag #leweb is still very much alive and kicking.
2 300 participants from 46 countries carried 2 937 devices with them, of which 1 008 were iPhones, sent 665 Gb data and the the two day conference resulted in total 200 000 live views on Ustream. (No wonder we managed to kill 8 000 cups of Nespresso!)
Figures state the obvious: People do love to meet offline - and share their experiences online. And since the urge to share is now enabled in real-time by various communication technologies and platforms available, industries stand in front of the firehoses of information without knowing what to do with it - and most of all, how to monetize this engagement and information. 2 300 people around the world came to LeWeb to try to figure that out, together. Personally I fell in love with Mobile Roadie, who together with awesome Ustream delivered the coolest iPhone application so far: the offical LeWeb app. How can you not be totally blown away by the fact that you simultaniously in your hand can watch the perfect stream of what you're actually experiencing live? Besides that everything is also available archived the minute after the live stream is over. And moreover, all the attendees easily available, all the conversations and buzz going on, on top of the push notifications of changes in the schedule. In other words, the perfect tool to connect people around common interests and events! See Michael Schneider's, CEO Mobile Roadie, LeWeb demo.
(Sean Percival, Mobile Roadie, The History of The Real Time Web)
LeWeb certainly didn't lack great speeches, but I would like to summarise the core essence of what's going on around us on the real-time web with following quotes:
"Every device is becoming interactive", Axel Schmiegelow, sevenload"Connectivity is a commodity", Jonathan Benassaya, Deezer
"Social graph optimization is the new SEO", Seth Stenberg, Meebo
"We're banking revenue ($6 billion) because we're connecting with customers", Richard Binhammer, Dell
"People like to interact with their own content!", Justin Kan, justin.tv What everybody seemed to agree on across the roundtable discussions was that connectiveness adds customer value, and that there's no way but to go with the flow and experiment the best one can.
I highly recommend you to take your time and watch these three sessions to better understand the magnitude of the technology shift we're facing, and why we need to stay very close to and engage in discussions with our customers and users.
Close to a humble platform roundtable moderated by Michael Arrington with industry giants such as Facebook, Ning, LinkedIn, Ustream, SixApart, MySpace and Twitter. It was a manifestation of how fragile their impact on user loyalty is. There's no way of surviving without understanding the importance of users' social graphs, putting the user experience first, and treating ones developer community well.
Even Osama Bedier of PayPal, interviewed by Om Malik, GigaOM Networks, was clear on PayPal's goal being to ensure payments on any device and plafform possible. Why? Because all platforms and devices are going to be connected and users will expect to be able to interact and make payments regardless the device.
Panel with Axel Schmiegelow, sevenload, and Justin Kan, justin.tv, moderated by Rodrigo Sepulveda, vpod.tv
For hard facts and hands on tips on how to monetize online video, work with social video platforms and advertising. This panel knows how users like to interact with online content, and how to monetize that. Justin.tv have one million created channels, hosts 40 000 broadcasts per day, and have users uploading 24.3 hours of live video per minute! Sevenload manages to push CPM levels as high as $39! Learn why two screen experience already counts for 15% of the revenue of the traditional TV, and why one has to target the content first, and ads second.
Brian Solis (also on the panel "How brands and marketing have to adapt to this new worldwide real time “word of mouth”") has been following the evolution of social video and written a great post on why live streaming services have taken the step to become an important part of mainstream media strategies.
To put the development of social online video in a Swedish perspective:Bambuser, Swedish live video streaming service, has also experienced a growth in number of videos viewed since enabling broadcasting live directly on ones Facebook feed. Just within two months Facebook now counts for approx. 30% of all the videos viewed. There's a steady 3 000 channels created per week and I'm eager to see what kind of effect the upcoming iPhone application, just submitted last week, will have on the numbers.
Another Swedish startup Videofy.me, online video monetizing service, I've covered earlier, is also gaining speed with steady growth in numbers of monthly new users, revenues, and recurring advertisers. Monetizing the long tail user generated content is totally doable.
MUSIC REBORN
Panel with Jonathan Benassaya, Deezer, and Emmanuel Jayr, GOOM Radio, moderated by Robert Scoble.
Listen to a great discussion on why connectivity has become commodity, how software is becoming a platform for music, and why US is the number one country in sales for new music services.
To quote Robert Scoble: "Where's Spotify?"
I really would've liked to see Spotify to join the Music reborn panel. As eloquently as Marissa Mayer handled all the questions from Michael Arrington regarding Android phone and Rupert Murdoch, I don't see why Spotify couldn't have joined the conversation. So what that Robert was going to mention US launch and Apple's acquisition of Lala? I strongly believe that it's for the importance and common good of the European startup community and music business to be part of the conversation.
For more coverage from the conference, read Annika Lidne's, Disruptive Media, reports from Day 1 and Day 2.
And last but not least, the most entertaining and brilliant piece I've seen and read from LeWeb so far, naturally signed by Paul Carr.
LeWeb through my iPhone lens
Not convinced yet? Paris is great even outside the LeWeb!
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