The 8 photo & video ecosystem trends that stood out in 2021
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Below are 8 trends in the photo & video ecosystems that stood out for me in 2021, many of which were derived from news or analyses provided in this year's Visual 1st Perspectives pieces or discussed at this year's Visual 1st conference.
- Most smartphones’ image capture quality is now good enough for all use cases except for “long tail” ones. Even digital cameras – along with action cams, drones, instant print and a range of other cameras – have been forced to focus on long tail use cases.
- Most innovation and growth is occurring among photo & video web apps, with native smartphone apps nearing saturation except for long tail and newly emerging use cases.
- After several years of expanding their photo & video features and expanding their footprint in these areas, social media networks are no longer invincible and leave opportunities for independent photo & video app developers who cater to growing privacy & security concerns and are nimble enough to address long tail use cases.
- We see expanding photo & video engagement opportunities emerging for subscriptions (ranging from photo & video app to photo print product subscriptions) as well as solutions that empower e-commerce through more compelling visuals.
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APIs rule. We increasingly operate in an open ecosystem in which imaging functionality – ranging from image correction, to creative effects, computer vision, photo editing, video editing, photo print products, and e-commerce – can rarely be developed by a single vendor. Hence, APIs enable companies to offer end-to-end solutions to their customers that include best-of-breed functionality provided by partners. Conversely, APIs also enable companies to provide their technology to partners who are best suited to cater to complementary markets.
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AI rules, but.... Imaging AI technologies are the engine behind solutions that are not just easy to use but also sophisticated enough to power a broad range of imaging tasks, such as capture of visuals, computer vision, photo & video enhancement, imagery curation, photo-rich layout, and the creation of synthetic media. But… the AI honeymoon is over, with broad societal concerns for biases, security, privacy, and deepfakes.
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Videos rule. After having been heralded for decades, mainstream adoption of video is finally happening. The main drivers: short-form videos, in particular music videos, which generally don’t require traditionally difficult to use timeline editing features; and the development of easier timeline video editing tools for longer form videos thanks to computer vision, natural language processing, and smart use of various auxiliary (meta) data.
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Businesses, ranging from solopreneurs to SMBs and enterprise, are increasingly “going DIY” by taking on those photos and videos tasks for which scalability, costs, and control trump the need for highest-end quality – now that increasingly powerful and easy to use DIY imaging tools have come to market.
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Now available: The Visual 1st Perspectives 2021 Roundup report.
To make the Visual 1st Perspectives newsletter content in 2021 easily accessible and searchable, we have aggregated the content from 26 Visual 1st Perspectives pieces in our new 86-page report.
Order the 2021 Roundup report.
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Why purchase this comprehensive report?
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Use the index to quickly find news or analysis for any of the 180 companies mentioned in any of our 2021 Visual 1st Perspectives newsletters.
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Search for any term used in any of our 2021 newsletters, such as acquisition, AR, API, subscription, or photobook.
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Vochi & Pinterest. Acquisition. AI-based video effects app developer Vochi is acquired by Pinterest. A sign of the times: originally photo-focused, Pinterest has since launched Pins, a video-focused storytelling tool, as well as a TikTok-like “ Watch” tab. Vochi has a 40-person team and previously raised $4.2M. More about Vochi in our DIY Video Creation Apps report.
Adobe. New multi-media creation app. With PicsArt and Canva having reached unicorn status, why not beef up and rebrand an existing multi-media entry-level creation app – Spark – rather than acquiring costly competitors in this space? With this presumed underlaying thought, Adobe announces Creative Cloud (CC) Express, which supports graphics, photos, and videos, and comes with a gazillion fonts and stock assets. The app will come in both a free version and a paid $9.99/month edition with additional capabilities and a library of more complex templates. Adobe also plans to launch an Enterprise and Teams version in 2022, presumably a more direct competitor to Canva.
Synthesia. Raising $50M. Congratulations to synthetic video enabler Synthesia, whose CEO Victor Riparbelli spoke in our Visual 1st "Making imaging machine learning super smart" panel last year. The UK-based startup raises $50M in a series B round, in addition to the $16.5M raised earlier.
Wishing you Happy Holidays and all the best for next year!
Hans Hartman
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