A VC - Latest Comments in What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

fredwilson — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:10:24 -0000

I hope that¹s my secret because I love spending time with my family

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

Hammer — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 18:29:14 -0000

I recently watched seasons 1 and 2 of Mad Men and something from that show rang very true to me in this post. Don Draper mentions that one of the reasons that he gets paid the big bucks and is so good at is job is that he is in the target market that all advertisers are trying to hit. It seems to me that one of the reasons you have been so successful as a VC is that you are in fact the target demographic for your tech startups, and thus your personal life, including your family, provides useful insight into what will be consumed. Upper class, tech savvy, early adopter, married, 3 preteen/teenage kids, homemaker wife.

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

fredwilson — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:23:46 -0000

Is this a legit comment

I couldn¹t tell so I approved it

The warning about the links concerns me

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

smile.up.e.books@gmail.com — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:03:55 -0000

I made something for my own kids as somewhat of an experiment. It is a cross between a mystery book and a romp somewhat educational romp around the internet.

I would be interested in hearing what people think about it. It an odd hybred..

J.B.'s Fantastic NYC Internet Adventure - The Fun & Free Adventure Reading Learning Game

http://kidsinternetlearning...

JB's Fantastic NYC Internet Adventure is an online mystery set in NYC. It is designed to foster reading/thinking by hooking kids into the mystery with interesting Internet links to famous and familiar NYC places (the Met., Statute of Liberty, American Indian Museum, etc . .)

It also has links to poetry, music (old school and new), as well as kids oriented sites related to science, nature, and business.

WARNING: This links to the Internet. Therefore, please use a net nanny and/or parental supervision.

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

DavidA — Sat, 10 May 2008 05:02:23 -0000

your kids are upper class. not very reflective on the world population, which you wrote about in your new post.

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

fredwilson — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:30:02 -0000

I think you are right about this

Fred

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

MarkHarrison — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 12:27:54 -0000

> Might books be the only medium that remains unaffected by the Internet (except the ease of finding and buying them)?

Can I suggest "finding, buying and PUBLISHING".

- I worked with a traditional publisher on my first.
- I hired an editor (freelance) and self-published my second.

- Sales of the first are much higher
-Profit from the second is much higher.

Neither of them are (or even going to be) anywhere near the best-seller list. They're firmly down in the long tail, but I suspect that that's the end where the change is happening fastest, not the only end.

... Oh, and I also produce an ebook version of the second - we've price-tested various points, and the optimum seems to be about TWICE the price of a paperback for the same material. There's something there about the premium of instant gratification, I feel.

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

scott — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:46:43 -0000

my son is 3 months old so I don't have much insight there yet!

Interested in your comments on radio, the goldman chart looks bearish for radio and this fits with your kids' habits but you have been a strong proponent of digital radio over the years, your kids' habits would suggest that it might not be the saviour many in the industry are hoping?

Scott from Shanghai (where radio is pretty much non-existant as a media!)

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

fredwilson — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 11:45:02 -0000

I love this part of your comment:

Different media has brought our family closer than ever before even though we all lead very different lives in the 'real world'

That's been my experience too

Thanks!

fred

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

brentchapman1 — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 10:33:15 -0000

Interesting observation. My 7 year daughter can't get enough of the Archie comic books either. Every night she reads them. Almost never watches television (other then Hannah Montana and American Idol) and lives on my laptop. Big fan of Cartoon Doll Emporium, losing interest in Webkinz, lost interest in Toon Town (Disney) and Club Penguin (Disney also, I guess :-) and occasionally goes to Stardoll. Finally, recently spend about 1/2 of a flight to Arizona over the holiday playing Brickbreaker and the other half listening to my iPod.

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

fredwilson — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 09:14:02 -0000

My kids found both bands

I love kids!

Fred

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

aizheng — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 02:13:00 -0000

肺癌胃癌肝癌

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

Chipotle — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 22:51:50 -0000

Wow, when you give us a chance to talk about our kids the comments come rolling in.

One more quick observation. When my kids (ages 18 to 23) were home for Christmas, I noticed that when they were sprawled on the couch watching TV they always had their laptops open nearby. Most of the time they were IMing with their friends, but they'd also check the price of the jeans an actress was wearing or look up the title of a song that was playing etc.

BTW, I downloaded the Bishop Allen album based upon it making your top ten and it's terrific. It's now in heavy rotation at our house. Vampire Weekend is also a current favorite, but I have to give my daughter credit for getting them on my iPod

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

Lloyd Fassett — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 18:18:25 -0000

There may be a more relevant chart about Market Growth/Decrease rather than EBITA. Chris Anderson's Long Tail pointed out how the big hits of about 2000 have a good chance of never being topped because of the ability to find more personalized / relevant content. (was Justin Timberlake at the top of your music taste?) Total TV viewership by young people is dropping and so it the movie box office. Wouldn't the abiity to find the EBITA in the sector of 'internet' and 'agmes' be the real leverage point instead of the sector? You even mention that the report is about Radio, but that your family doesn't listen to much (we listin to none), so you may get 6X EBITA, but if revenue is declining, what's the point?

It seems the strong point isn't in what type of media, but in how media is found and created. If there was some way of divining what your kids found interesting and then create that, that might be the winner. It would be the same thing as Market Research, but on internet time and with niche focus.

My kids are 6, 5,5, 2. We got rid of TV 3 years ago because it was too easy to plant them in front of it so we could do housework. They do play games on pbs.org though and other games on TV. I don't when it will be, but we'll wait till they insist on media before we bring it back.

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

Morten Skogly — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 18:17:49 -0000

My 5 year old son is surfing Youtube with his 3 year old brother at his side, and I use the delicious toolbar to share new sites with him. I was really suprised by how easy it was for him to get the hang of the mouse when he started out. He recently picked up a nintendo ds, and I thought I would have to play super mario with him on my lap, silly me, to be able to get through the dialog screens etc, but he groked that in 10 minutes, and had 4000 points in a few days. But nothing beats cartoons on television, they can both sit glued to the idiot box for OURS, only popping up for fruit and water now and then (or fighting :)), and i am trying to break that habit by infusing a little nintendo wii, so far with great success.

Personally, I am bored to death by Facebook, Myspace is a GUI abomination, and I've stopped using almost all my previous social networking sites, from flickr to virb to last.fm. The ones I have kept are the ones who actually provides me with a tool, like youtube for uploading video and picasaweb for images, but that is about it.

I recently started listening to Bach cello pieces on my crack first gen xbox and picking up my old passion for scifi books, so I guess I'm nearing the grandfather years (i'm 34). I grab a few minutes of local news on the tv now and then, but besides that, everything else I watch is downloaded. I subscribe to a few magasines like wired and computer arts through work, but i seldom read then, just browse once in a while to get inspired to search up stuff on google.

My one year old daughter likes eating crayons. :)

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

fredwilson — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 18:14:02 -0000

Yeah. Its great. A glimpse of the future in many ways

Fred

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

fatadam — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 17:19:02 -0000

My daughter is 2 and loves Big Bird, Miss Piggy (or both together), Diana Ross (featuring Big Bird) and the limited clean videos of the Teletubbies on You Tube. She also likes 'Spider Man speed painting' which is causing me concern and joy in equal measure... go Jackie Pollack go..

Great post, thanks.

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

Brandon McLarty — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:52:42 -0000

Fred,

Check out quarterlife.com. The network production quality "internet show" 17 episodes so far. Great social networking hooks.

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

Alan Moore — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:17:54 -0000

Really fascinating, you might be interested in our book and blog communities Dominate Brands http://www.communities-domi...

I am not sure newsprint has got it figured out yet. There is a great deal of infrastructure problems that allows them to respond in the manner they would prefer I think.

The big threat to TV is the financing of TV with advertising $$$ and if the model of mobile advertising takes off, which I think it will, the cannibalisation will come from TV spend. Many commercial TV networks and production houses find this a significant challenge.

But my kids do the same things as yours, its real and its here to stay.

My son would often put on a film lets say Jurassic Park and use that as the soundscape and backdrop to his creative play. Fascinating. All my kids have laptops and often we find them spending 2 hours watching you tube in hysterics.

With books read Henry Jenkins book on Convergence Culture - its very good and also the Televsion will be revolutionized, can't remember the author. He talks about Harry Potter and Fan Fiction.

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

Gem — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:01:08 -0000

My 8 Yr. Old Daughter is obsessed with High School Musical.
My 6 Yr. Old Son is plays the Nintendo Wii Daily. (Along with his Dad =).
They are too young now to be exposed to MySpace and Facebook. When they are on the computer a great deal of their time is spent playing online games @ NickJr, Cartoon Network, Youtube, and Webkinz. Our family loves music and when Jay-Z and Apple make the rumored Digital Music Label the Big Music Labels are going to have to make some changes to remain relevant.

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

Any.Moose — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 13:45:50 -0000

This was our primary topic of conversation over Christmas dinner this year - a huge paradigm shift for our family!

My technologically shy Aunt received a cell phone from her sons as a gift and whipped it out to show off during dinner. This prompted everyone at the table to pull out theirs and compare and contrast, show off digital pictures and challenge each other to different games. This WAS the adult table and OVER 50% senior. Last year answering the land line during dinner was considered a serious faux pas and here we were talking about and using the various features on our cell phones for nearly 2 hours without pause.

This, I think, is the difference: The land line used to represent a departure from the family activity. You walked away and immersed yourself in a conversation with an 'other'. Here we could not only share stories about our daily lives but show them through pictures and even video.

Even after dinner, splayed out on the couch and floor, in our turkey comma's, digital brain games were passed around and we challenged each other to one on one brain combat and unlike some of the games played in previous years this was ALL AGES inclusive. Family dinners have always been age segregate. There is a kids table and an adults table, kids games and adult games. This year the six year olds were playing with the seventy year olds and the teens and the parents were all getting along and having a good time.

When the night wrapped up some kids and adults immersed themselves in new books or mags and some kids and adults moved to the basement and put on a good old Christmas classic, star wars anyone?, and others finished the night raiding the kitchen for a late night dessert who's recipe was pulled directly from the cooks favourite cooking blog.

Different media has brought our family closer than ever before even though we all lead very different lives in the 'real world'. In one year we went from a technology ban to full on embrace - who knows what next year will bring? Anyone up for a game of WII?

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

Karm Khanna — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 13:17:57 -0000

Fred, I stumbled upon this post via a trackback on another blog. This was an excellent read.

My 2 paises...I'm 30, single and have no wife or kids. Yet, my consumption habits are almost identical to your teenage kids. Part of the success for most tech companies lies in the fact that they are no longer dealing with a fragmented demographic.

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

Democratic Strategist — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:29:40 -0000

My daughter just came home last night from visiting her mom's kinfolk in North Carolina. The first thing she did was check her Facebook and email. Then she started studying for her exams. Then (most interestingly) she turned on CNN to catch the news. This after being in a Fox-News-on-all-the-time household last week. She had no interest in "The Wire". ;(

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

JP — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:21:39 -0000

My four year old son is already a TiVo fan. Although he does not read he understands that at any time there is a prerecorded show that that is ready for him to watch at any given time. "Just TiVo it Dad" he will say and we have only had the box for around a month. I have heard the term "Download Generation" referring to what they want when the want it mentality and I believe that this is now very true. Although he still does enjoy playing with the wind up emergency radio we have...doubt that will last much past the age of six.

Re: What My Kids Tell Me About The Future of Media

Michael Yurechko — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 08:04:00 -0000

I'm 16 and you're almost on the money with the list.

Movies/TV
I go to the theater for major releases or movies which have great trailers and I just HAVE to see. If not, I'll wait it out and download the movies. If I enjoy it, I'll likely pickup the DVD, if not I'll just delete it and move on with my life.

Music
I tend to get new music from other bloggers, friends, and Last.fm. When I say friends, I mean my friend Alec ( http://alecfeld.com ) who eats, sleeps, and breathes music.

Internet
I spend anywhere from 2 to 12 hours on the internet on any given day. Why? Well for one, I work online. But for the most part it's because I can stay entertained for hours for cheap. I can go to YouTube and watch a few videos, chat with friends, catchup on my RSS feeds or even get work done. Being a blogger, I find writing to be fun, interesting, and rewarding ($$ :D) - Though, I am anti-facebook. Big social networks that try to do everything annoy me. I like last.fm, digg, etc. but I do not spend hours upon hours on each, and I tend to use them for their main purpose (news, new music, whatever it may be, but I don't spend time each day messaging friends and writing on their profiles).

Books/Magazines
I do enjoy books and love to read, but most books don't get me engaged enough so i find myself going back to my RSS feeds if a book doesn't grab my attention from the start. Magazines on the other hand, I hate. I don't know what it is, but I think its something to do with the news being out of date. I work as a tech blogger for apple and gadget sites and the news found in magazines annoys me - since it's usually weeks or months out of date.

Paying for content.
Everyone thinks teens pirate everything. Not all do, but most download stuff. For example, I pirate everything. I use bit torrent and usenet a lot and download tons of content. If I enjoy the content, I go out and purchase it. Radiohead really got this idea from the start with In Rainbows. I downloaded the CD for free from their website, and loved it. So just last week I ran out and picked up the CD. The thing that bothers me is that most artists make little money from album sales, and make the most through concerts. So if Radiohead is ever in Vancouver, touring In Rainbows, you can bet that I'll be there.