Whipclip, with its unicorn-like valuation, ushers in, the brave new era of TV clip sharing, one more time! But will it deliver?
One can share clips of the favorite moments, of their favorite TV Show, on Live TV, with a mobile app.
Sounds great in theory. But, will it cross the chasm and propel forward, in a "consumer scale" adoption trajectory.
Fred Wilson says, "Mobile does not reward feature richness. It rewards small, application specific, feature light services".
While you are watching Television, you sure could multi-task, like messaging a buddy, but would you be able to talk on the phone, while watching your favorite TV Show simultaneously?
No. It is impossible to do another "foreground task", while watching Television and enjoy both.
The Clip Sharing app makers out there, don't get this and provide a beautiful and easy-to-use editing interface to share your favorite clip and expect it to follow a "Consumer Scale" adoption trajectory.
What? You are expecting me to mute Television and share the present moment, while I miss the next great moment. Or have an earphone ready to review the clip which is going to be shared.
No way, this model will become consumer scale. Some are quick, to point out the distinction between clip curators and clip watchers.
But, clip curators, as long as they are amateurs, would not want to review clips either, while enjoying live television.
The simplistic solution of "One Touch Sharing" would not work, without understanding the contextual difficulties of determining what portion of the clip that you are watching and what moment precisely, you are interested in sharing.
That is the $100 M question.
These are very hard problems, which can be solved algorithmically though. The Victor who would achieve a "consumer scale" adoption trajectory is not the app with the "rich features" but the one, with "algorithmic clip sharing" solving the pivotal problem of determining, what precisely the user wants to share, making the sharing process super simple.
Bring it on.
Image Courtesy: Five ways to build a $100 M Business
