Social TV's State of the Industry: Reaching The Peak of Expectations. Time to Manage Them We Say

Posted by Gianluigi Cuccureddu SMP in Writers on January 28, 2011  |  2 Comments More from this author  |    |  Follow Gianluigi Cuccureddu SMP on: Facebook | LinkedIn | Twitter |

Gartner's Hype Cycle is a tool which gives insights on the state of technologies trends based on their curve. By understanding the current status and what phases it surpasses, companies could understand what's out there awaiting them. Because the industry involves so fast, Social TV's Hype Cycle will transform fast.

One aspect of finding out where Social TV is standing, is finding out about the attention it gets from the press and overall traffic. It's not a full investigation, but press creates expectations based upon input from the industry.

By investigating the traffic on the keyword "Social TV", Google Trends will give an overview of this keyword, where does most traffic comes from and the letters present media coverage. Of course there's much more coverage, Google Trends gives a snapshot based upon parameters which I don't know.

For years we've seen an increase in traffic, 2010 however shows a more drastic growth in press mentions and traffic. If I compare this to the coverage on AppMarket.tv on Social TV, I see a same growth. (AppMarket.tv has been set up in Q2, but we've been into Social TV since 2007).

Below you'll read an explanation of Gartner's Hype Cycle, where Expectations are compared against Time. 

Observations - Quantitative

If we relate the abovementioned graph against our coverage and Google Trends, we see an increase of traffic, which can be related to "Mass Media Hype Begins". Being relative it doesn't have to mean we won't see an even greater increase, but when SFGate, MIT, Wired, Deloitte and others are promoting Social TV as becoming important, we can conclude the arrival of Hype.

Beside traffic and type of press, there's also an uplift in "First generation products" and "Startup companies, first round of VC". Think of Philo (VC infusion), Miso (raises $1,5M), GetGlue (raises $6M from Time Warner) and others.

Observations - Qualitatively

More important, is the content of coverage. As mentioned above, the more important the entities are, reporting on Social TV and its rise, the sooner the industry will head towards the Peak of Inflated Expectations. Names like MIT, Wired, Deloitte are leading academic institutions and companies. If we look at the VC side, companies like Time Warner, Google Ventures, Union Square Ventures and RRE Ventures, are as well leading entities that - with their investments - set predictions and expectations towards Social TV.

When a prominent person then predicts that Social TV is going to be huge, we have definately reached a certain basic believe and trust in success:

Cory Bergman over at Lost Remote picked up a brilliant quote from Endemol's CEO this week. 

“Everyone says that social television will be big. I think it’s not going to be big — it’s going to be huge,” Ynon Kreiz, CEO of the Endemol group, the largest independent television production company in the world, told attendees at the Digital Life Design (DLD) conference this week.

Where do we go from here

The Hype Cycle shows also a second insight, namely the one of anticipation and influence, that will determine the course and speed of Social TV. The graph below shows the education of Social TV, demand and supply.

While our network partners and ourselves at AppMarket.tv have been reporting and sharing market intelligence, at the same time, we have created analyses to also underpin the challenges that Social TV will meet. Customer Success Stories is what will become important in the Trough of Disillusionment, where unmet expectations and (potential) dissapointing results will create the start of negative press (see second graph). 

This doesn't mean at this point there aren't success stories, but a critical mass is needed to take along the industry. Two technologies we've been working with and have initial successes are:

* Social TV Demo - http://vimeo.com/16881308 (watch in full screen!) - this company (ExMachina) is hot as you could see by the demo. Working on the Voice of Holland which was just bought by NBCU... and they come out of gaming, which brings a whole other element to social TV. Also backend is built for broadcasters - complete with trigger system and full control over second screen experience.

* Online campaign to find new teen presenter for Dutch Fashion TV show for SBS TV - http://www.talentscene.nl/ from www.TalentsMedia.com - where the community can choose to be part of the jury or the competition. Great for pre-selection for any kind of talent challenge on TV. And it's gone viral in Holland.

Time to manage we say 

From a supply point of view, our colleagues and Agora Media Innovation, are creating the role of managing, anticipating on change and transformation and influencing the supply side to meet the bigger coming expectations of the demand side.