The Revolution will not be Televised. It will be Voice.
Social Media was done in 2020. We were all locked up like a hit single from the Senegalese Artist Akon, and had no choice BUT to use these platforms, to virtually stay connected with those who mattered the most to us. The world had enough and needed something new to see them out through a tough, unprecedented period.
Enter the Voice Revolution
Voice Tech has been everywhere for some time: Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, Samsung Bixby and Apple Siri. The list goes on. It’s been accessible through almost anywhere: Home IoT devices, Portable smart devices and even built-in Car Navigation systems. However, it is only starting to get the attention it deserves in the 2020s!
The 2020s has re-defined how we consume and use voice
Podcasting adoption soared in 2020 (I was fortunate to jump on the bandwagon immediately when the year started in January 2020). Since 2010, I have been consuming Podcast shows and accidentally started my own that same during my Sophomore year at University, as a Radio Show spin-off.
Never in my life had I witnessed the roaring popularity of podcasting than in 2020; Over a whopping $800 million dollars was thrown into podcasting ad spend.This is set to exceed $2 billion by 2023! Money follows the consumers, and if consumers are moving from Television to voice, you bet advertisers will too.
The significance of voice has surely picked up since the dawn of the pandemic. Podcasts are usually a medium of content that people like to consume on-the-go or whilst “multi-tasking”. However, if a lot of people were open to listening to them whilst locked up at home (49% of people listen to podcasts at home), this speaks volumes to how powerful Voice Technology is; It’s one of the very few mediums you can use to quickly build intimacy over time with a listener, without requiring much effort and resources.
Clubhouse was able to achieve this to an extent when it peaked in February 2021 with 9.6 million downloads. Social Media audiences got curious of this platform between 2020 and 2021 which helped Clubhouse to crush it for the best part of 18 months. They rode the audio wave until it was fully torn apart by copycats like Twitter Spaces and Live Facebook Audio Rooms (As I write this, Linkedin have finally launched their response to Clubhouse, which I was able to attend earlier this week). Not great for investors!
The evolution of Voice
In 1986, it was predicted that “speech” would be the interface of choice by the year 2000. We’ve come a long way from The Voder in 1939 (First artificial speech synthesiser, which required a human operator), to the likes of Siri and Alexa in the 2010s.
Generation X and Millennials have certainly been around long enough to see the variations, improvements, adoption and especially the adaptation of voice interface use-cases. It finally looks like Voice is here to stay!
But what would the next Voice revolution look like?
Clubhouse unfortunately proved to be a novelty, yet podcasting has taken a permanent spot in the audio consumption marketplace. Clubhouse wasn’t necessarily revolutionary, but evolutionary.
Imagine if we combine all the above we’ve discussed?
Social Media+Clubhouse+Podcasting+Siri= X
The outcome of X could be something like Tayp.
Tayp is an up-and-coming social media platform created to discover new ideas from 90-second voice notes. Whoever you follow will appear in the feed on your homepage on the app. You will also be able to listen to voice notes supporting your interests in your explore tab.
It uses a timeless format (voice, which is future-proofed of being redundant). It’s engaging (can be consumed on-demand like Twitter Spaces and unlike Clubhouse in the early days). It can be available in all content lengths (short, medium and long form audio). Most of all, it has a HUGE potential to become an ecosystem in its own right like Alexa.
This “sounds” like the perfect recipe for success
Language is hardwired in our DNA. We are born with the fundamental rules for language (Noam Chomsky)
Adrian has 10+ years in the Digital Transformation space. He’s worked in Startups, SaaS, Telecom, EdTech, etc. Outside his remote role for a top Privacy-Tech firm out of Milan, he runs a successful podcast, teaches businesses and individuals on podcasting to build their brand and generate income. Where time permits, he assists niche startups and entrepreneurs with their product growth and marketing.
