the vc in me....: Personalized Storytelling: Monetizing User-Generated Content

As I expressed in a previous post, users are generating content more than ever - even teens are blogging (I believe the latest stat shows over 30% maintain blogs) - and of course all ages are posting photos and increasingly video and audio (e.g. podcasts).

There's no shortage of creation, hosting, management, and discovery tools/services for user-generated content but what's missing is the ability to monetize all this content and provide a meaningful end product for consumers that doesn't just sit in the digital ether. It will be tough for advertising to work on a large scale for user-generated content as the advertiser doesn't know what content they are associated with - it will take time for advertisers or publishers to solve/get more comfortable with this content type. This leaves a transaction model wide open - which I know well from my Snapfish days...

I noticed at Snapfish that our digital photo album books were a very hot seller as consumers created an end product they know well - photo albums - but done in a professional book-like manner and in minutes vs hours or days.

I'm thinking there is a twist on this model combining user-generated assets along with professional ("stock") content into tangible physical products (such as books and DVDs) that are personal yet very professional - and would command high margins given their high emotional value. The disruptive changes in digital offset printing (you can now create a personalized professionally bound book for dollars vs a set up cost of $10k for each run) and cheap DVD burning make this very doable.

The idea is to create personalized storybooks from user generated content (blog entries, photos, video, podcasts) that combine licensed content (I dare use the word "mash up") and sell the physical products to friends and family who care deeply about it. The digital version of these "stories" would be offered free and help market the service virally. The subjects of such books and DVDs should be important life events (reunions, tributes, births, weddings, eulogies, childrens books, etc) that some group of people would be willing to pay to memorialize in DVD or book form. The digital story should be very easy to create with templates that blend professional content - the design rule should be "create a story in 5 minutes or less" - appealing to the masses. I know there are several companies that have tried variations of this idea in the past and several in the space now - so far I haven't seen anything I've fallen for - but i'm still looking.

If you've got a similar idea or want to jump on this one with a great team, drop me a line...

Comments

Not sure how this blog-to-book thing would pass anyone's diligence.

Sounds like lifestyle venture and a half.

Besides, blogbinders.com have been around for a while and I'm not seeing any kind of triple digit growth.

Hell...I'm sure the pitch can get reworked and refocused, but I'm not seeing a large list with plenty of ticks on it.

Posted by: Daniel Nerezov | February 01, 2006 at 08:53 AM

There are a few very interesting startups that aim to do exactly what you are saying.

Send me an email and let's talk more about them.

http://baris.typepad.com

Posted by: baris | April 01, 2006 at 10:42 PM

Raj,

I came across your post (Personalized Storytelling) about 6 months ago and was, well - blown away. The concept you suggest is quite powerful and timely as well.

We (www.myowncartoon.com) have been in development for nearly 18 months building web-based products and services that have many of the features you mention in your post.

So what is MyOwnCartoon.com? Imagine if you will:
Myspace + Pixar sprinkled with a bit of flickr.

We allow anyone to create and star in their very own, personalized, fully animated Cartoon Mini-Movie(tm). The concept you described of fusing user generated content with high quality, professional grade content to create a compelling "story" or user oriented product is exactly what we do.

We're just coming out of stealth mode and recently announced our upcoming (Fall 2006) Beta launch.

I'll send you a separate introductory email as a follow-up - I'd love to get your thoughts on our business model!

Candyce Mackbee,
Co-founder and Acting CEO
MyOwnCartoon.com

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the vc in me....

Welcome! This blog broadcasts my thoughts on sectors of interest in my role as a venture capitalist as well as other ideas or tidbits on the business of entrepreneurship. I hope to engage entrepreneurs, VCs, and anyone else in dialogue!

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