A few weeks ago, I wrote about how to assess the likelihood of success for a new company. One dinner party discussion later, I realized I missed two important must-haves for any company hoping to succeed: Implementation and Adoption.
In other words, the How and Why questions.
In the Bay Area, you can’t throw a stick without hitting someone involved with social media, television to the Internet or Internet anywhere. I am a particular fan of these developments. I watch these companies develop and assess them as sports fanatics handicap their fantasy teams. My assessment is that there is no way on earth all these companies will be successful, or even in business a few years from now.
This is true with several technologies with very crowded, not particularly well differentiated spaces that are currently populating Silicon Valley. What makes the social/Internet/television space(s) so ripe for this discussion is that sometimes there isn’t anything more than unconvincing answers to the questions:
- How will this be implemented?
- What will drive adoption?
For my examples of the social/Internet/television space(s), the implementation question is one that has affected most companies that have had to address anything television-related. Getting into an existing Set-top Box (STB) is often a long and political process. It is not nearly as easy as “just dropping some code in the existing STB.”
If you go the route of having your own STB, you’ll need to be certain consumers will adopt, and sometimes purchase, your STB. TiVo is a great example of something so new and compelling that consumers were willing to make the additional purchase. TiVo’s ability to timeshift broadcasts and recommend programming was a triumph of product offering, timing and marketing.
Companies that operate cross-platform in this space today have an advantage and what in the near future will be a necessity. Companies like Yap.tv and even Comcast’s Xfinity take advantage of the growth in tablet sales to adoption. Because people aren’t being asked to purchase a device to use this, there is a clear advantage. I’ll assume you know what Comcast is. In case you don’t know Yap.tv yet, it brings a social experience to television viewing. TechCrunch gave it Two Flies a few months ago. That video describes why the TechCrunch crew believes the company will be successful.
We are now seeing newer, shinier things to distract us and intrigue us. Whether the end-user is consumer or business, the questions still remain: Will anyone change their ways to use this? AND How are you even going to get it into the potential hands of the end-user to try it?
Fork In The Road 