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Market Builds to Organize the Minutiae of the Electronic Age

February 2005

STANFORD GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS—One of the newer additions to the lexicon of e-babble is the word microcontent—the instant messages, electronic photos, music files, pod casts, and just plain bits and pieces of information that stream at us through our electronic appliances ranging from cell phones to laptops.

While some may still have trouble defining the term, speakers at the Feb. 15 MIT/Stanford Venture Lab presentation were agreed this type of content represents an emerging business opportunity as users try to corral the information, sort it, and most of all, be able to access it on demand.

"This information is often bidirectional—you can send it or receive it; it is usually a small amount of information related to one topic," said David Arfin, MBA '91, founder of GlooLabs and one of the speakers for the evening program.

The amount of microcontent to be organized is potentially huge. Arfin estimated there will be 2 billion mobile phone subscribers worldwide by the end of 2005 and 82 billion short message service (SMS) communications will be sent annually via cell phones. And there currently are 13 billion songs on person-to-person networks finding their way onto personal computers and MP3 players.

According to Arfin, the holy grail of dealing with this content is "capture the media, organize it once with whatever management system you prefer—for instance, iTunes—but be able to manage it wherever you are, whether it's in your living room or during your commute on [U.S. Highway] 101."

Arfin's company is creating software solutions to allow remote access to information. Once material is collected, any appliance with browser access could be used to access it remotely from any type of operating system. Arfin and other speakers agreed that while the market is potentially huge, consumers are waiting for applications cheap and easy to use. They also agreed that consumers of information are increasingly turning to live, dynamic content as opposed to traditional information channels.

Microcontent has spawned three rapidly expanding areas of opportunity: providing content, distributing content, and mobile hardware. Earlier means of distribution were focused on delivering information to a mass audience via stationary devices such as personal computers or television. The change is creating opportunities for new software and hardware products.

Other speakers included Art Cohen, CEO of Aerielle; Claas Heise, managing director of T-Venture of America, the venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom; and Rahul Mewawalla, who focuses on technology-based early-stage ventures for Monitor Ventures.