Media & Entertainment Tech Report: 2021.5

A (very) late review

Sep 06, 2022

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I’m excited to finally share the 2021.5 issue (more on the .5 part in a minute!) of my media report.

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Like the two previous editions, it’s an overview of the trends and companies that pushed Media & Entertainment Tech forward in the past year. It’s structured into seven main sections, each of which covers a particular media category, including:

Gaming
Video
Audio
Music
Social
The Creator Economy, and
New Media

If this is your first time with one of my reports, here’s a preview of what that looks like:

As always, the whole report is packed full with insights from the best operators, analysts, and investors in the space. Each slide also comes with its own clickable credits so you can always go straight to the source. Whether you’re already involved in Media & Entertainment, or want to ramp up on the industry’s latest and most interesting developments, I think you’ll find this report a valuable resource.

You can now access the full report, along with past editions, for free on my personal website.

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A quick note on… timing

Like the 2019 and 2020 issues, the 2021 edition of this report was meant to be a comprehensive review of the most notable events that had impacted Media & Entertainment Tech in the past year. Having actively monitored the space throughout the year, I was confident that synthesizing my readings and thoughts wouldn’t take too long!

Then, life happened, and proved me wrong. Weeks, then months went by, and I endlessly felt like the report was somehow still missing “that last 1%” (or was it 10%?). After so much time, did my insights still have value? The much-needed encouragements of a few friends convinced me to pick up where I had left off and to finally push my work out into the world. Considering the timing, I think it’s only fair to call this the 2021.5 review.

As you may expect, some of my analysis has now lost some of its original relevance. Some of the companies I studied may have expanded on the offering I described at the time I first looked at them. Similarly, you may find the timeline sometimes confusing — unless specified, all dates are, indeed, from 2021.

All this is inevitable. Safe for a few late additions and updates to old slides where needed, this report remains a snapshot of my thinking as it stood at the beginning of 2022. Fortunately, most of the signals I initially picked up have not only endured but indeed bled into the current year, sometimes even heightened.

In any case, I hope this review still reads as a valuable recap of an eventful year, and a primer on a few of the trends that are sure to continue to develop in the coming years.