With the increasing affordability of advanced connectivity and smartphones, media companies are open to more formats and mediums to reach wider audiences and customers. As a result, media tech startups utilize innovations in data processing and analytics to revolutionize content creation and consumption. This report provides an overview of media industry trends ranging from artificial intelligence (AI) and audience engagement to cybersecurity and social commerce. They allow media companies and brands to further their visibility and better connect with customers. Read more to explore how they impact your business.
Innovation Map outlines the Top 8 Media Industry Trends & 16 Promising Startups
For this in-depth research on the Top Media Industry Trends & Startups, we analyzed a sample of 3 024 global startups and scaleups. The result of this research is data-driven innovation intelligence that improves strategic decision-making by giving you an overview of emerging technologies & startups in the media industry. These insights are derived by working with our Big Data & Artificial Intelligence-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 2 500 000+ startups & scaleups globally. As the world’s largest resource for data on emerging companies, the SaaS platform enables you to identify relevant startups, emerging technologies & future industry trends quickly & exhaustively.
In the Innovation Map below, you get an overview of the Top 8 Media Industry Trends & Innovations that impact 3 024 companies worldwide. Moreover, the Media Innovation Map reveals 16 hand-picked startups, all working on emerging technologies that advance their field.
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Tree Map reveals the Impact of the Top 8 Media Industry Trends
Based on the Innovation Map, the Tree Map below illustrates the impact of the top 8 Media Industry Trends in 2023. Startups and scaleups are developing AI-based media tools that automate processes and analyze content performance. The media industry is also emphasizing audience engagement to improve brand reach and sales. Further, technologies like immersive media and low-latency content sharing ensure elevated user experience and satisfaction. Media companies use new media marketing and social commerce to capitalize on the customer base to generate higher revenue. Lastly, blockchain and cybersecurity innovations aid in ensuring data privacy, asset ownership, and system resilience.
Top 8 Media Industry Trends
- Artificial Intelligence
- Audience Engagement
- Immersive Media
- Low-latency Content Sharing
- New Media Marketing
- Blockchain
- Cybersecurity
- Social Commerce
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Global Startup Heat Map covers 3 024 Media Startups & Scaleups
The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights the global distribution of the 3 024 exemplary startups & scaleups that we analyzed for this research. Created through the StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, the Heat Map reveals that US and UK see the most startup activity.
Below, you get to meet 16 out of these 3 024 promising startups & scaleups as well as the solutions they develop. These 16 startups are hand-picked based on criteria such as founding year, location, funding raised, and more. Depending on your specific needs, your top picks might look entirely different.
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Top 8 Media Innovation Trends for 2023
1. Artificial Intelligence
High turnover requirement for media content forces companies to push out pipelines in shorter periods. At the same time, they need to raise the quantity and quality of their content to attract more consumers and drive higher value. For this, startups leverage solutions powered by AI, machine learning, deep learning, natural language processing (NLP), and more. They enable media companies to improve their services and enhance customer experience. In addition to automating operations, AI allows media companies to perform strategic decision-making, metadata tagging, content personalization, and subtitle generation.
ScorePlay advances Automated Media Management
Portuguese startup ScorePlay provides an AI-based media management toolkit for entertainment and sports organizations. It automatically tags content and offers a search engine to make content libraries instantly useable and searchable. ScorePlay’s automated distribution channels also deliver content to the desired audience, improving viewer engagement. This allows businesses to fulfill sponsorship and partner deals while centralizing media assets.
Contentyze offers Automated Journalism
UK-based startup Contentyze offers a natural language generation (NLG) tool that aids story creation. It extracts data from spreadsheets and plugs it into story templates to generate news updates. Additionally, Contentyze’s AI algorithm adds variance to each template, creating unique stories for the target audience. This saves time in content creation and also boosts search engine optimization (SEO) rankings.
2. Audience Engagement
Generating influence and revenue from a highly diverse pool of audiences requires extensive promotional activities. Moreover, media consumers have specific interests concerning content topics and types. Startups leverage advanced analytics and AI to identify user preferences and tailor content offerings. This allows media companies to improve the appeal of stories and engage a wider population. Further, media tech companies utilize various techniques like scrollytelling, audio, video, bite-sized, and user-generated content (UGC) to improve their first impressions. Media businesses also utilize social media to gauge and test strategies for content creation and ensure audience engagement.
Reeler aids User-generated Content Management
Swedish startup Reeler offers a platform that collects, organizes, and publishes user-generated content. It automates the entire content management process from content collection to publishing for maximizing engagement. The platform also offers an in-built photo editing tool that accelerates content workflows. Besides, it publishes UGCs directly to social media and creates embedded content galleries, boosting engagement.
Organic optimizes Publishing Workflows
Organic is a US-based startup that offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for audience engagement. It allows creators and publishers to easily manage, monetize, and analyze their content. The platform’s data pipelines combine user content, audience engagement, advertising, and consumer data into a single hub. It also supports the integration of third-party data sources to optimize reporting and obtain relevant insights.
3. Immersive Media
Innovations in immersive technologies are improving the accessibility to virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) solutions. Media companies leverage them to create and publish content in immersive formats, which improves the viewer experience. Immersive media also provides users with an enhanced entertainment experience by virtually connecting them to their friends. The pandemic further increased the need for virtual experiences to facilitate public events like concerts, music shows, and art exhibitions. This ensures the continuation of such events, also aiding artists and content creators financially.
Legal Graffiti facilitates AR Content Sharing
US-based startup Legal Graffiti makes an AR content-sharing platform. The startup’s application allows users to view artworks around the world through its virtual platform. Legal Graffiti’s mobile app also allows users to share and view content as they walk around the streets. This exposes the crowd to new forms of art and creativity while financially supporting creators.
TrooVRS develops a Virtual Editorial Platform
US-based startup TrooVRS creates an immersive virtual editorial platform. It combines cloud computing and VR to offer tools, practical knowledge, and self-care content for men. Additionally, the platform allows them to participate in events and connect with like-minded communities. TrooVRS’ solution-driven storytelling enables readers to improve personal well-being.
4. Low-latency Content Sharing
The media ecosystem uses multiple content formats of varying format quality for maximum audience engagement. This strains internet services and leads to increased buffering frequency, especially in the case of video and immersive content. These limitations in network connectivity affect the viewing experience and, in turn, negatively impact content value. Media startups utilize innovations like 5G, WiFi 6, and other low-latency communication protocols to offer higher data bandwidth, enabling flawless viewing. This allows media businesses to deliver content across networks and increase their reach.
Livery Video offers an Interactive Video Cloud
Livery Video is a Dutch startup that provides an interactive video cloud that enables low-latency video sharing. It leverages an ultra-low-latency common media application format (ULL-CMAF) and a regular content distribution network (CDN). This offers superior scalability and quality compared to conventional methods and formats. The startup’s cloud thus enables media companies to engage with their audience in near real-time with live video, sound, and interactions.
Gumlet optimizes Video Streaming
Singaporean startup Gumlet offers a development platform that facilitates the setup of custom video infrastructure and reporting systems. The startup’s video infrastructure automates content delivery and optimizes latency metrics for uninterrupted streaming. Its reporting system further consolidates all video engagement and experience data to optimize upscaling instances and bandwidth usage. This reduces buffering frequency and playback failures.
5. New Media Marketing
Optimal ad insertion is critical to ensure the fulfillment of all parameters of sponsorship or partnership deals without hijacking the content. Advances in digital marketing enable media companies to improve ad placements by leveraging customer analytics. These tools also create an opportunity to personalize ads for media consumers utilizing first-party customer data. This enhances the efficiency of marketing by improving both revenue and customer retention for partners. Further, new media marketing results in long-term partnership deals that ensure a steady revenue.
Adelaida enables Ad Effectiveness Measurement
Chilean startup Adelaida builds Emotion AI, its software for behavior analysis-based ad effectiveness measurement. The software leverages machine learning-driven computer vision and emotion recognition to evaluate ad performance for viewer attention, emotion activation, and content effectiveness. The software also provides insights on emotional responses to digital content, predictive analytics, and competitive intelligence for effective media planning. This allows advertisers to determine the most effective ad concepts and boost attentive reach to obtain higher returns on ad investments.
Nexweave provides Hyper-Personalized Media Experiences
Indian startup Nexweave offers a platform that creates hyper-personalized media experiences. The startup’s editor tool allows users to integrate personalized text, images, logos, website screenshots, and advanced widgets into GIFs, images, and videos. It also allows brands to personalize outreach through automated messages and dynamic landing pages. These features facilitate better engagement and conversion.
6. Blockchain
Enforcing the authorized use of copyrighted content is a brutal task, which also causes massive expenses for media companies. On the other hand, blockchain-based data management simplifies this by providing distributed immutable ledgers that track and monitor digital asset information. Blockchain-based certificates like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) record digital asset ownership and ensures the uniqueness of content. The distributed nature of blockchain also allows creators to register proof of copyright quickly and inexpensively, preventing the unauthorized use of their content. Additionally, media companies offer NFTs as collectibles to improve audience engagement.
REV3AL ensures Digital Media Data Protection
REV3AL is a West Indies-based startup that makes a blockchain-agnostic watermark pinch to protect and authenticate media content and intellectual properties. The startup’s ecosystem utilizes distributed ledgers to provide secure information about protected intellectual properties. It also leverages multi-factor authentication and anti-counterfeit protocols to create multi-tier protection. This protects consumers against fake and counterfeit digital media and NFTs.
RairTech offers a Digital Rights Platform
US-based startup RairTech provides a blockchain-based digital rights management platform. It attaches digital assets to NFTs for enabling the encrypted streaming of videos, music, images, and data. This allows media companies and creators to make digital goods analogous to material goods. The platform also supports NFT minting, royalties, and metadata to ensure data security and fair compensation for creators.
7. Cybersecurity
The digitization of the media sector makes it prone to cyber-attacks and other malicious activities. These include impersonation and content theft that negatively impacts their credibility and business objectives. Innovations in cybersecurity utilize continuous network monitoring and behavioral analytics to offer greater control over the digital media ecosystem and protect it from attacks. Such cybersecurity solutions automate various surveillance tasks which would otherwise require a team of data analysts days to perform. In addition to protecting media assets, they ensure the safety of private consumer data and minimize sensitive data leaks.
Mediastalker advances Media Asset Protection
Norwegian startup Mediastalker provides media privacy protection and antipiracy services. The startup’s proprietary plug-and-play AI platform leverages multi-sourced data models to protect media assets on the internet. This allows brands to block illegal live streaming, protect music content, and secure media portfolios, thereby increasing revenue.
Pellonia aids Content Infringement Detection
Canadian startup Pellonia protects media assets, copyrights, and publicity rights from malicious attacks and theft. The startup’s technology scans social media platforms and websites to identify breaches in media assets. Upon detecting anomalies, the platform automatically takes them down, avoiding impersonations and ensuring financial gains for artists and creators.
8. Social Commerce
The widespread adoption of social media and eCommerce moved customer purchase decisions into online channels, allowing ad and media companies to quickly reach them. This powers the development of social commerce where influencers and content creators promote products closer to the customers. Such platforms provide consumers direct access to desirable products without time-intensive surfing. Some solutions also provide interactive features that aid customers in buying decisions. This, in turn, allows content creators to improve user engagement and enables brands to promote products while ensuring higher conversion rates.
Friendswith enables Collaborative Shopping
New Zealand-based startup Friendswith provides a mobile application that enables collaborative shopping. It allows influencers to share content and products to improve social media engagement. This enables collaborative shopping experiences for customers while influencer marketing improves the authenticity and genuineness of products.
Bleeker offers Live Shopping
French startup Bleeker provides a live eCommerce shopping platform. It allows businesses to offer customers one-to-one or one-to-many live video experiences. The platform also offers a personalized selection of products in real time and shares recommendations via emails once the live video is over. Further, it enables customers to chat with their friends during the live sessions to improve customer engagement and chances of purchases, increasing revenue.
Discover all Media Trends, Technologies & Startups
The future of the industry aims to reduce the efforts of content creators and media companies in creating and publishing content. AI, advanced analytics, and immersive technologies will further drive content consumption and revenue generation opportunities. Additionally, the integration of low-latency communication, blockchain, and cybersecurity will enable the uninterrupted flow of content while ensuring a fair media ecosystem.
The Media Trends & Startups outlined in this report only scratch the surface of trends that we identified during our data-driven innovation and startup scouting process. Among others, AI, immersive technologies, and Web3 will transform the sector as we know it today. Identifying new opportunities and emerging technologies to implement into your business goes a long way in gaining a competitive advantage. Get in touch to easily and exhaustively scout startups, technologies & trends that matter to you!
