LDV Capital Insights 2021

Content & the Metaverse are Powered by Visual Tech

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Massive shifts are underway in content creation and tools for the creation, monetization, and moderation of that content. By 2027, there will be 100X more visual content online, a major evolution of our digital identities, and exponential business opportunities.

The internet was not always considered “real life”, but now we live as much online as we do in person and this will only continue post-pandemic. We work, date, laugh with grandparents, play games, attend cooking classes, concerts, church services & dinner parties; we participate in politics, appear at court, go to school, shop, visit doctors - all via computer screens. 

We find ourselves in the midst of an evolution: digital is another dimension of our human existence. Even post-lockdown, people spend 13 hrs of their day online, on average. As we embrace digital life, it is only natural that we choose to represent and express ourselves in new ways online. We want to digitally express our thoughts, tastes, styles, talents…our creativity.

To showcase our personality and uniqueness online in the same ways we do in person, we are participating more than ever before by generating content. There are millions of creators across the globe, producing, selling and building audiences around the content they create. Dubbed the “Creator Economy,” it is one of the fastest-growing business trends taking over headlines. 

However, there has always been a creator ecosystem including photographers, videographers, writers and artists. Our General Partner was a professional photographer, photo editor and photo agent in the early 1990s. In 2004, he wrote an article “Will more than 100 Billion digital images be captured worldwide by 2005” and all thought he was crazy. 

Due to shifts in online participation and technological advances, over the next five years, the amount of content created and shared will grow exponentially. The vast majority will be visual content.

Breakthroughs in visual tech tools are fueling the next evolution of content creation. The creative economy that has existed for generations, primarily dealing with physical goods (pottery, jewelry, paintings, photos, etc), is now digital. In this report, we examine the top visual tech trends that are now reshaping digital creation and identify the unique business opportunities to support creation over the next five years:

Our team presented the findings we published in this report at our free, virtual event, “How Visual Tech is Fueling the Creator Economy” in September 2021. We look forward to hearing your insights, learning about your startups, and reading your research papers on how businesses are addressing these challenges and opportunities.

Information in this report can be referenced and quoted with a hyperlink to this page and credit ©LDV Capital.

Special thanks go out to the following individuals for sharing their insights and expertise with LDV Capital for the research behind this report:

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