issue 124
Hello! Happy three day weekend to those based stateside. First, I really like how some companies are developing AI to streamline and/or automate video editing for hobbyists. This tech, which first surfaced in 2016, is more or less helping craft and curate the assembly, and throws some *sick* beats behind it. I think the edit is the biggest pain point in the production process, and I’ve made a few Instagram and YouTube videos in my day. All on iMovie as I’ve devolved with age, no more Final Cut for me. My dad had a lot of fun over the weekend toying with GoPro’s Quik service that syncs the edits to cleared music - mostly, uhm, dubstep. Not great, but certainly watchable, shareable, and instant. Trash App, which announced last year (TC), does something similar. I’d like to know how this tech works, let me know if you have any insight. I love any product that encourages creativity (:
Second. Pour one out for HQ Trivia. It was a media company, not a tech company, but it carried that $100m tech valuation and some investors enjoyed the markup while it lasted. I thought HQ’s approach to paid user acquisition via monetary rewards was pretty neat. Our favorite host, Scott Rogowsky, absolutely skewered the founder calling him a clinical sociopath on Twitter. #Drama. My friend Eli, co-founder of Hovercast (disclaimer: I’m involved), tweeted a nice summary on why HQ was a breakout interactive live streaming company. No doubt that a phoenix will rise from the ashes.
Third. I’ve been in LA the last few weeks and head back to NYC tomorrow. Virtual characters were brought up to me more than once. I’m also involved in this space with a pre-launch company that I can’t wait to write about. If you know, you know. Any way, there are many industry stakeholders who are strictly viewing these animated or photo-real characters as content, bread crumbs to launch something bigger. So many of their creators are just going down the “influencer” route, few actually focus on the story (which is always the most important). I liken this notion to podcasts. The starting point is somewhat novel, concentric circle outward, end goal is traditional film/tv. Only a handful have succeeded. Some story-focused newsletters are also popping up with this spin. We’ll build an audience cost effectively (this is v hard), and in success, we’ll make films and tv shows (this is even harder) — Disney, here we come. I usually ask, why not just just make yourself famous?
Fourth. Gold House is a nonprofit I just learned about, specifically their Gold Open service, which hosts private, intimate, events and dinners to bolster Asian representation in Hollywood. They partnered with AMC this time last year after the success of Crazy Rich Asians. Literally, some of their members are just that, who allegedly bought up weekends at theaters and just gave away tickets for fun. I want to be friends with more people like that. The illuminati pretty much. This info is all second hand, so take it with a grain of salt ~ I’m not a professional journalist. I think the model is replicable for other groups and/or causes. They would service and cater to publicists, filmmakers, and distributors. Some other social impact campaign companies are Picture Motion (the de facto), and 360 Communications. They work on festival, release, and awards strategy, generally. The best ones should be profit participants, especially the premier publicists.
Lastly, and I’ll make it quick, I’ve been stewing on ways to convert dilapidated movie theaters to retain their values as entertainment hubs with a social gathering bent. I see them all too often, especially in small towns. It pains me. The city next to where I grew up, with a population of 65k, no longer has a theater. The marquee just reads Lease Available. Breaks my heart. I’m sure some of you have been exposed to this real estate play. I don’t think they’ll become WeWorks any time soon…
To finish, I will be in London March 15th - 18th meeting with founders, filmmakers, and financiers. Hit me up if you’re based there, always happy to grab a pint.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. See you next week.
Tech
Gum Gum, contextual advertising w/ nlp, raised $22m. TC
AdQuick, ooh marketplace (wrote about the rise of d-ooh in 2018), raised $6m. TC
Predict HQ, data sets around real-life events, raised $22m (this space is cool). VB
Tamatem, games for MENA market, raised $3.5m. TC
Apple is removing Chinese apps at the gov’s request. Abacus
Snap rolls out “Here For You” in mental health push. 9to5
Apple joins FIDO alliance for user identity. Forbes
Atari acq assets from Wonder, gaming and ent platform. VB
HQ Trivia shut down. TC
Astranis, global internet w/ sats, raised $90m. Fort
Bit Fry Games, arcade action sports games, raised $3.5m. VB
FB releases Pinterest copycat. Info
Radar, location based data, raised $20m. TC
Double Loup, games for ppl who don’t identify as gamers, raised $2.5m. GBD
Jam is a new app that lets you share passwords for SVODs (not chill). TC
Headspace, health and wellness meditate app, raised $93m. TC
Hubu, omni marketing optimization, raised $15m. TC
Intuition Robotics, ai companions for elderly, raised $36m. VB
Judge denies Uber and Postmates suit for CA gig workers. Reut
Soul Machines release Ella, ai bot, for NZ police. SM
Bayes, outsourced data viz services, launched. Bayes
Docugami, extracts info from docs, raised $10m. GW
Sixgill, monitors the dark web, raised $15m. TC
Google ends its free wifi stations in India. TC
Portl, a hologram machine (back in Oct). BW
FTC to examine past acqs by big tech cos. FTC
Media
Sirius XM invests $75m in Soundcloud. Var
YouTube invests in The Young Turks. Axios
Spotify acqs The Ringer for reported $250m (wow). Bberg
Caffeine signs Drake to multiyear live streaming partnership. Verge
Univision closing in on sale for $10b. WSJ
YT dipping toe into SVOD market (again...). Info
Amazon spent $11b on advertising. CL
The value of NBA and other sports franchises. Forbes
Dan Loeb reveals stake in ViacomCBS (letters, pls). THR
Overtime bought Fortnite team Evade for more esports content. FOS
YouTube deal w/ Activision esports around $160m. ESO
T Mobile and Sprint merger might finally happen. WSJ
$3b of YT’s ad rev went to the music industry. CNBC
Vice going to get clobbered by TPG straight jacket in payouts. WSJ
The music industry’s distrib crisis. Rollingstone
Tidal lost 100k subs last year (they’re still around?). DMN
CBS Sports names William Hill as sportsbook operator. Axios
FB reacts to political sponsored marketing, must be marked as ad. Verge
XFL game drew 3.3m viewers. NBC
Circles Life, MVNO in Asia, now a unicorn. TIA
Oscar viewership sinks to new low at 23.6m. Var
Entertainment
Skydance gets $275m cap infusion from CJ Group and RedBird. Dead
Sky and Punchdrunk team of transmedia project, The Third Day (!). Guardian
Neon acq WW rights to Spaceship Earth (can’t wait for this one). Var
Ava to direct Nipsey Hussle doc for Netflix. Dead
Netflix is free streaming All the Boys I Loved Before (smart). Var
Code and ShivHans to co-fi action pic The Ice Road. Dead
Amazon to finance The Map of Tiny Perfect Things. Var
Samuel Ha (Okja) launches Bound, to finance Korean movies and more. Dead
HBO Max and Spotify to adapt pod series, The Two Princes. Dead
Imagine inks producer pod deal w/ Whitaker Lader. Dead
Netflix takes WW rights to The Life Ahead (Italy play). Var
Verizon launches $5m film fund for women. Var
Amazon takes NA rights to series, The English. Var
NEON takes NA rights for Shirley. Dead
How Conde Nast Ent is structured (a dev slate puff piece). Var
Perfect, Olivia Wilde’s next feature, is buzzy at EFM. THR
Sky unveils largest slate with 80 originals. THR
Escape from Hell hopes to be first major vertical format film (uhh). Dead
Endeavor launches social impact fellowship for ppl wanting to start in the biz. THR
Podcast producers setting up their own award show. Bberg
Bleecker Street pre-empts US rights on Mike Leigh’s next film. THR
Kidscreen awards. KS
Dice award winners. Polygon
Collaborative
Tim Sweeney DICE talk. IGN
Wild article on CIA and German financed encryption and security company (someone good pls option for tv show). Washpo
Wes Anderson's French Dispatch trailer (yay). YT
XR growth and job increases around this field. Vox
Athletes getting into more private equity deals. WSJ
Teaching a robot comedy. IEEE
Report on the consumers and the streaming wars (good). PWC
Data to show the population of cities (woah). Pudding
Stranger Things 4 teaser. YT
Martin Casado on the new business of ai (the guy is v smart). a16z
Using gamers brain waves for robot / drone swarms (wtf, Enders Game). Syfy
Bill and Melinda Gates to focus on climate change and gender equality. Fortune
White paper, scientific simulations with neural architecture search. PDF
Deepfaking photos of the earth. Defense
Green Knight trailer (oh my god, looks sick). YT
US says Chinese military might’ve hacked Equifax. MIT
Altered Carbon season 2 trailer (yes!!). YT
ICAAN says .com increases might soon subtly increase. NC
Harari on the future winners of tech will own consumer data. NewYorker
Fred Wilson on new stable coin US DC (hmm). AVC
Charles Forman on virtual production. YT
Carla DiBello’s, a reality tv producer, role at Saudi’s $300b fund (wut). WSJ
Scientists don’t agree on why planes stay in the air (lol). SA
App that automatically cancels and sues Robocalls (sounds too good to be true). Vice
Profile on the NFL graphics for broadcast. AVclub
Interior Dept says no Chinese drones for US gov. WSJ
James Murdoch investing in environment. NYT
Travis Bott, Travis Scott inspired ai. Fastco
Martin Casado on the metrics that matter for SAAS cos. MCtwtr
White paper, a search of aerial and satellite imagery. PDF
Magic Grants open for next year (I closely track). BI
TCV partner on the full potential of SAAS w/ charts. Med
The convergence of physical and digital retail sales. Nielsen
NYC tech sector growth report. PDF
Remote work report from AngelList. PDF
A bunch of startup decks nicely organized. Airtable
First cohort of artists at Berggruen Institute. TheArts
Johann Johannsson Last and First Men trailer (RIP). IW
Profile on a Korean hedge fund that threw $500k at Parasite. Bberg
Mapping coronavirus. Citylab
Cyborg grasshoppers that can sniff out explosive (wut). NS
Brain wave patterns that detect depression. Sci
The guys who “hack” Tinder to appear more. Atlantic
Quitting the K-pop idol factory. BBC
3D pose animation code from Barracuda (watch this space). Github
It’s a long, long way out before AI can be creative. Fastco
Juul was buying ads on Nickelodeon and the like, aimed at kids. BF
Virus masks compromise China’s facial recog. QZ
Hunter Walk on the tech / media outlet feud. HWblog
Tom Quinn, Neon, podcast. THR
Bloomberg buys political sponsored ads on meme accounts (this headline). NYT
Why Twitch fans donate to wealthy streamers. Kotaku
Metrics for streamers. Nielsen
Brett Bivens on bottom up investing. VD
Personal data for Israeli voters is exposed in hack. NYT
Billie interviewed by robot. YT
Sam Lessin on how TikTok changed consumer social. Info
J Cole Dreamer. YT