The technology that Watchity has created is an innovation in the global live streaming market and brings to life a new product category, the Collaborative Live Video. Due to its innovative character, there aren’t already known competitors in this new category, so we have to find alternative products and analyse them to depict their main differences with Watchity.
In the global live streaming market, which will grow from $30B in 2016 to $70B in 2021 at a CAGR of 18,3%, there are several product categories, from Over The Top Platforms, targeted to Media and TV broadcasters with Pay per view or subscription linear and on-demand streaming services, to Niche Video Platforms targeted to a niche market or a specific use case. Some of these product categories, although doesn’t solve the same market need as the one’s Watchity will solve, are in some way related to us, so we can consider them substitutive or alternative products. These three product categories are: i) SaaS Online Video Platforms, ii) Social Networks, and iii) User Generated Content platform.
Compared with state of the art solutions, Watchity represents the first and only crowdsourced multi view streaming platform. Multiple videos recorded by multiple users on any recording device can be merged into one single screen that shows the same event from many different angles in real time. The user creating the watchit can post it to social media platforms or give restricted access to a select group of viewers. Viewers can contribute and decide from which angle(s) they want to watch the event.
Economic and Societal benefits of Wathity are clear. Watchity will improve European competitiveness in the ICT sector. According to Cisco , streaming and internet video is among the top 10 ICT global trends and yet Europe is still behind in this field comparing with the Asian markets. Western markets lag behind Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East when it comes to online video. Europe under-indexes for online video penetration by 23 points, while North America under-indexes by 11. There is a need to further develop this market in Europe in order to lead ICT global market trends. Watchity is responding to a global and European need as live video generates 15 times more engagement than on-demand. Watchity will not only mean a breakthrough in terms of resource efficiency for multiple businesses, but it will also put Europe back on track in the ICT global market as it will enhance internet video consumption. This project needs to be developed soon so Europe is the one creating this new product category.
