Startup Battlefield Competition: Session 3 – Wotch

[Applause] Oh Hello hello everyone is it working Perfect hello everyone I'm James this is Scott and over there you have Ren We watch the new home for creators and We're delighted to be here thank you for Having us So Scott and I are 22 and we built watch From our bedrooms we met at 18 where we Built an e-learning platform together And some of our clients included the Gibralting government and Lloyd's Banking group Social media video sharing the industry Is worth one trillion dollars Three quarters of children want to be YouTubers showing it's not going showing It's staying here the industry So let's imagine you're a creator You've worked for years building up a Loyal audience and yet you're being Treated in a way that doesn't seem fair So you're consistently being demonetized For difficult to diagnose and really Hard to change ways the types of videos That you're able to upload are Constantly changing and you also don't Feel like you've got anyone to talk to So even though that you've weathered the Various different uh controversies that Are existing on the other platforms You're now in a position that you don't Know what to do

Consumers are and I'm not in a great Position either So you're being inundated with Irrelevant and irritating advertising And you also even when you want to show Support to your favorite creators aren't Able to do it because the comments Section is filled with what seems to Just be abuse held at your favorite Creator So what is watch We are a Creator first video sharing Platform rewarding and empowering Creators while creating a more social Safe experience for the consumer Our values are Creator first Safety First and social first What does Creator first mean we Prioritize the creators and we include Them with our strategy whether that's Technology strategy commercial strategy Or leadership So I'm sure you're asking what's so Great about our Tech so first of all We've built our entire back end up on a System called kubernetes which allows us To scale down to really really lows Amounts of costs uh when we've not got Most traffic but also scale up when we Are experiencing traffic spikes or even In the event of something like an attack Our processing pipeline has been built To support millions of uploads per day And we've also built an exciting

Moderation piece which protects users From things like Um inappropriate content and also areas Like copyrights and we're both doing That with a piece around human Endorsement of content with an exciting Feature called Watchdog finally our Interesting list algorithm which has Been a coin phrase from my first or Favorite YouTuber case neistat which is Basically around suggesting relevant Entertaining and safe post to the user Let's jump over to the demo Cool so when you first open up watch You're presented with these really Immersive preview cards which suggest to You different posts you might be Interested in so we've put a bit of a Bias into the algorithm that it's likely To surface some new and interesting Creators that you might not have seen Before or also things like educational Topics which no one's going to argue That you wouldn't benefit from Um so you can see here some of the great Posts that some of our creators have Uploaded already and if we jump into a Post We can see we've also put much more of That has just actually happens to be me Um it's uh there's much more of a focus On the crater Um over in the right hand side Um so you can see also we've taken a lot

Of that familiar user interface of Suggesting related posts but also the Comments section has been cleared up a Lot we're algorithmically suggesting Comments that are not only much more Safe for General audiences but they're Also much more likely to be relevant to Types of things you want to see on Mobile you can also comment with a video Or a gif Finally it's worth mentioning if we jump Over to Creator hub That we're taking numbers and turning Into faces if you go on any competitor And analytics software you'll just see a Sea of graphs and numbers but on watch You'll see exactly who makes up your Audience an actionable queries and Statements that will help you to be a Better Creator moving forwards So let's go back to presentation So how do we make money we have two main Mechanisms Super Sub which is a Creator Driven micro subscription model and Advertising a more tradition traditional Method that the Creator controls Global scale we are focusing on the Emerging Markets South America Russia The Middle East and India Scott Ren and I went to Brazil about a Month ago and we spoke to the 25 of the Most influential creators in Brazil they Have over 100 million followers between Them and they have promised that they

Have signed an agreement with us to say They're posting exclusive content to Summarize 25 of the most influential craters in South America over 100 million Subscribers and exclusive content to Watch 2019 was a fantastic year for us we did Our beta with over 150 000 sessions we Were trending on Android at number three And iOS at number 13. and finally we Partnered up with Channel 4 the UK's Third biggest TV network We've got a fantastic team of investors Advisors and executors one of our Investors has hit with us today Simon Mitchell there he is He's floated three company no he's Exited three companies and floated a Company on British Ames market last year Wrap it up Dom smells we're delighted and we're Pleased to announce he's our new Investor he is the CEO and founder of Gleam Futures one of the biggest talent Management agencies in the world he Manages the likes of Zoella and Tanya Burr and he's helping us lead our Creator board Check us out wewatch.io this is a an Exclusive web web version for today and We're doing our influencer launch later In the year thank you very much and I Welcome any questions thanks guys

Hey judges Social face a chicken in the egg problem When they're launching and they're late To Market how are you going to get users If there's no creators how do you get Creators if there's no users and you say You're Gonna You've Got This Promise With with creators to uh to give Exclusive content we just saw Jay-Z from Title come back to Spotify people don't Always honor those agreements so how are You going to solve the chicken and egg Problem and get your first creators and Users uh on the platform sure should I Take this one go for it We've we've already started the process We assigned 25 as I said at 25 of the South Americans biggest influence with 100 million subscribers they have signed A two-year contract reverse to post Exclusive content on our platform every 15 days we've also got Dom the CEO of Gloom Futures and he has got the roster Of Talon with nearly 200 million Following between them what are you Paying those creators we're not we're Not paying them we're basically they Want a new platform they're looking for A new Revenue they're looking for a new Revenue Source because they're very Frustrated with the competitors And we're actually starting with the Pinnacle of the YouTubers or the Influencers who are going to invest in

The platform with their own cash and They're the influences of the Influencers and they're going to make it A very cool fact it's similar to how Vine got going what's the penalty if They don't actually uh live up to those Agreements so we kind of feel with our Strategy that it's not so much forcing Creators to post up on watch it's more Saying well look try out watch it's a New alternative and from our feedback We've actually found that 25 of the Influences that we approached 100 of Them said we would actually use this we Really like this and we are using it Here's this exciting content that we Want you to post Um on on watch for us because we really Want to work with us and the metaphor That you gave about title I think the Difference there is around the kind of Experience because obviously Spotify is A great service I think there's not as Many kind of problems with Spotify as There is with some of the existing video Sharing players What are the ones that you consider to Be main competitors and how you Differentiate against say tick tock or Any other sharing class absolutely and So I'd say starting off it comes down to The strata of how the video sharing Market starts off so you've got short Form midformer long form content uh

Short form is kind of tick tock those Kind of areas uh long forms your Amazon Prime to Netflix and we're very much in The middle which pretty much is just Ourselves and YouTube really at this Stage since a lot of the other Competitors are moving out because they Don't have enough differentiating Factors Um for us the different difference Between us and YouTube is that creators Actually love watch all of our feedback Has been that they want to be on watch They want to be posting they feel these Seem like much fairer Revenue splits This seems like much more of a embracing Uh place where I'm being listened to Most importantly Um and also consumers are saying to that Creator this is much more safe I'm not Having uh inappropriate videos being Suggested on YouTube kids or anything Like that Can you talk more about your Monetization And your Revenue share Cool absolutely Into the revenue share quick game so YouTube usually dish out the revenue Between 40 and 50 to the Creator we're Going to give them a minimum of 75 Percent we have four layers of creators We have Creator owners greater leaders Creator pioneers and creators so the Base level is 75 percent

And the more Scene they could become and The more money more Revenue share the Gap do you want to talk about them yeah Absolutely so as James mentioned in the Presentation our two main methods are Super sub and our kind of broad Strokes Advertising Um advertising for us is focused much More in incorporating the Creator into Uh the advertising piece because we all Know that on YouTube we're constantly Being inundated with these irritating Yeah we're going to pitch mode um but uh But yeah much more about bringing value To the consumer suggesting to them Things that they're actually going to be Interested in and involving the Creator And incentivizing advertisers to use Creators uh in their advertising as well What do your Revenue numbers look like For the next three years so the revenue Model is a very very hard one to predict But we we don't have the numbers to Count but I'm happy to show them you off Stage Um but we are expecting our conversion Rate from our beta was roughly 12 so With 100 million Um users signed in South America that's Obviously 12 million users So we've got a ton of disruption in this Market what does this Market even look Like 12 months 24 months from now Um well I think it's quite an

Interesting one in terms of what you're Classing as disruption because there Hasn't been really anyone yet if we're To look at a competitor analysis that Has really offered anything which is Really comparable to YouTube in a way That we are we're offering all the Things that creators by listening to Creators uh we're kind of offering that Feature set exactly Um and then saying okay what else would You like what what other things are Important to you as a Creator and then Also helping the other key stakeholders Like users and uh the advertisers and I Think the other to to inject I think a Few other companies where they're Realizing that the power is with the Creator so the consumers are loyal to The Creator are not the platforms so We're treating the creators fairly Absolutely I You talked about demonetization as being One of the problems on other platforms But then you also talked about safety And being a core focus a lot of times Those videos get demonetized for not Being safe for being really offensive And just today YouTube took off a bunch More videos from Stephen Crowder and Other creators that were offensive so How do you balance like solving Demonetization while also being safe That's a great question

Um so it comes down to including the Advertisers in the discussion which to Be honest seems like a pretty Self-explanatory thing to most people But that's not really how the existing Players do it they just say look we're Going to Shepherd you away from this Type of content because you wouldn't Like that but we're saying look be Involved in the discussion here's a Creator you can actually even pick your Creators that you want to work directly With you can create a strategy which is Going to work better for your business Um and then from there you're going to Get a much better Roi from that and You're also going to be generally more Happy with how things are going we're Also being transparent with the Creator As well so they may have had issues on YouTube but we're saying this is a fresh Star we're showing our policies very Clearly and they've got a chance to Start again do you have any discussions With advertisers right now in the works Right now because we're way over time Yes we are but we're not able to talk About them on stage Thanks guys [Applause]