Technology or Content, but not both.

Why technology and content for MoboVivo? Of course it makes a technology company like Vudu very attractive to a non-technology company like Walmart, but Vudu deal would not happen without the content.

I suppose Facebook and Twitter are two most popular examples of focused technology without content. Microsoft Word is another. However, although Google comes off as a technology content, they are among the leading suppliers of content in the world. So is Amazon and Apple. So, for every example there is likely a counter-example.

I will let Jim Spanfeller the former president and CEO of Forbes.com explain. According to Jim the future of value create in the digital world will be more about content than technology. He wrote recently, that:

In reality, the world is almost exactly the opposite of how many see it today: It is the technology that is commonplace and the quality content that is unique.  What a shame that many of today’s content companies will not be around to profit from the sure-to-come better understanding of the digital ecosystem. Why? Because they, themselves, are among the core promulgators of these misperceptions.

For me it is simple, to build great technology for the media industry you need two constants, the first is media content, the second is a relationship with the customers, both producer and consumers of content.

Of course, having a relationship with media customers means you have to know the content and the world they live in. Having been a former TV producer this is easy for me to understand. Having a relationship with the consumer of media is really at the heart of any great online service today. This has changed from the days for broadcast, where one-way communication was enough.